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Under Other Flags 



Travels, 

Lectures, 

Speeches. 



WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN 



1904 

The Woodruff-Collins Printing Co. , 

Lincoln, Nrbkaska. 



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TABLE OF CONTENTS 



On the High Seas 9 

European Letters 11 

Tariff Debate in England 13 

frglapri and Her Leaders. 22 

Growth of Municipal Ownership 20 

France and Her People 38 

The Republic of Switzerland 51 

Three Little Kingdoms 58 

Denmark 

Belgium 61 

The Netherlands 64 

Germany and Socialism 67 

Russia and Her Czar 77 

Rome — the Catholic Capital 86 

Tolstoy, the Apostle of Love 96 

Notes on Europe 109 

Thanksgiving Address, London, England 125 

The Pearl of the Antilles ." 137 

Birth of the Cuban Republic . . .' 156 

Patriotism, Havana, Cuba 171 

Mexico, First Visit 179 

Mexico, Second Visit 194 

Value of an Ideal 213 

A Conquering Nation 245 

The Attractions of Farming 277 

Peace, Holland Society Dinner 291 

Imperialism, Acceptance Speech 1900 305 



*Y 



"I Have Kept the Faith," St. Louis Speech 341 

Naboth's Vineyard, Denver, Colo -rrrr-3^7 

British Rule in India 363 

Philo Sherman Bennett, at His Grave 379 

Wonders of the West 383 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Frontispiece. 

Pope. Tolstoy and Nicholas 86 



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INTRODUCTION. 



The articles, lectures and speeches contained in 
this volume are published in this form for two 
reasons First, because I desire to preserve them 
tor reference; and second, because the inquiries re- 
ceived in regard to them indicate that others may 
desire them in book form. The lectures are pub- 
lished for the first time. The articles on my trav- 
els, except Notes on Europe, have been published 
before, and due acknowledgement is made. 




On the High Sea 



Introductory to the European Letters Written by 
Mr. Bryan 



On The High Sea. 

On Boardi "The Majestic," Tuesday; Evening, 
Nov. 17. — "Rocked in the cradle of the deep" — I re- 
called these words when the royal mail ship, "The 
Majestic," dropped her pilot at Sandy Hook and 
turned her prow toward Liverpool, but I could not 
either the first night or the second truthfully repeat 
the next line — "I lay me down in peace to sleep." 
But the ocean was so smooth and the weather so 
favorable that the evidences of sea-sickness soon dis- 
appeared and the trip has been a most enjoyable one. 
The steamer flies the English flag and belongs to the 
White Star line. She is 585 feet long, 58 1-2 feet 
beam and has a capacity of 1,433 souls (including 
crew of 316). The passenger rates run from $30 steer- 
age to $350 for best rooms in first cabin. There are 
only 498 passengers aboard this trip, divided as fol- 
lows: 62 first class, 75 second class, 361 third class. 
The boat also carries a large amount of freight. 

We left New York at noon Wednesday, Novem- 
ber 11, and will reach Queenstown soon after mid- 
night tonight (Tuesday, 17th). The west-bound trip 
is apparently made in about ten hours less time be- 
cause five hours are added to the time in traveling 
toward the United States, while five hours are sub- 
tracted from the time going east. 

Captain Edward J. Smith, commander of the 
ship, showed a party of us through the vessel and we 



8 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

could not but praise the cleanliness and convenience 
of all apartments and appreciate the efforts put forth 
for the security of those on board. We were awed by 
the massiveness of the propelling machinery, and the» 
we went into the furnace rooms and caught a glimpso 
of the stokers who, down in the dockhold beneath the 
water's level, shovel in the nearly four hundred tons 
of coal required for a day's run. These men work 
four hours out of each twelve and receive about six 
dollars per week and board — the rates established by 
the English labor organization. One of the employes 
in the cabin said that the stokers on passenger steam- 
ers like "The Majestic" had much more pleasant work 
than men similarly employed on gun boats, but it is 
hard to imagine any labor less inviting than that of 
the begrimed and perspiring men who kept the fires 
aglow while the passengers above compared exper- 
iences and discussed questions individual, national 
and international. 

An ocean voyage furnishes an excellent opportun- 
ity for extending one's acquaintance. At the table Mr. 
Charles Michaelson, of the New York Journal, was 
my neighbor on the left and next to him sat Mr. E. D. 
Vaille, formerly American consul at Zanzibar, now on 
his way back to that country to purchase ivory for a 
New York firm. To my right sat Mr. Barrett, a Lon- 
don music writer of distinction. He was returning 
from his first visit to the states. Mr. Balcombe of 
London and Mr. Warren of Louisville, Ky., both ex- 
tensive travelers, occupied seats at the further end of 
the table. My son's seat was not often occupied, ow- 



ON THE HIGH SEA 9 

ing to a disinclination on his part to risk the effect of 
the boat's motion on his appetite. At an adjoining 
table sat three of the most interesting men whom I 
have thus far met on the trip — Mr. Edgar Wallace of 
the London Mail, Mr. A. W. Black, until recently 
mayor of Nottingham, and Mr. A. J. Shepheard, a 
member of the county council of London. Among 
the passengers are the Earl of Denbigh and wife, Hon. 
J. A. Pease, a liberal member of parliament, Mr. S. 
B. Boulton and family of London, Father O'Grady of 
the Argentine Republic, Mr. Wetmore, a Chicago 
grain merchant, and son, and a number of others, 
each possessed of information in his particular line of 
work. 

Mr. Michaelson and Mr. Wallace are companions 
in journalism. Mr. Barrett entertained us with music, 
while Mr. Black and Mr. Shepheard have given me 
many valuable suggestions in the line of municipal 
ownership — suggestions gathered from their connec- 
tion with the governments of their respective cities. 
Lord Denbigh is colonel of the Honorable Artillery 
regiment which was recently so handsomely enter- 
tained by Boston and other eastern cities. His ban- 
quet speech at the Massachusetts capital showed him 
to be a happy after-dinner orator, his reference to 
the tea incident being especially felicitious. He said 
that the English and the Americans once had a little 
difference about tea in Boston harbor. The former, 
he declared, wanted the tea "in fresh water, hot," 
while the latter seemed to prefer it "in salt water, 
cold." He added that the English had learned dur- 
ing that experience "how not to govern colonies." The 



10 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

earl, being a conservative member of the house of 
lords, has enlightened me in regard to campaign is- 
sues and election methods and has also given me 
letters to a number of officials whom I desire to meet. 
Through Mr. Pease and Mr. Black I have arranged 
to hear Mr. Asquith, one of the free trade leaders in 
the parliamentary contest now in progress. He 
speaks near London next Thursday night. I hope to 
hear Mr. Chamberlain while in England. 

Mr. Boulton has for several years been connected 
with the arbitration of differences between labor and 
capital, and conversed most instructively on that sub- 
ject, as well as regarding the workingmen's clubs and 
other means employed for bettering the condition of 
the wage-earners. 

Father O' Grady enlightened me on many matters 
connected with his religious work in South America, 
while Mr. Wetmore supplied statistics on grain trans- 
portation. All in all, the week on the boat has 
proved most beneficial and but for the necessity of an 
early return to the United States I would regret the 
separation that must take place at Liverpool tomor- 
row afternoon. 

I shall mail this at Queenstown. 

While darkness conceals the land, we can see the 
light houses on the Irish coast and feel that the ocean 
voyage is nearly ended. In the morning we will pass 
up St. George's channel with the land of Brian Boru 
on one side and Wales on the other. From now un- 
til the hour comes to re-embark I shall see and hear 
and learn, and from time to time give the readers of 
The Commoner the results of my observations. 



European Letters 



The following European Letters were written for and copyrighted 

by the Hearst newspapers, and are reproduced by 

courtesy of William Randolph Hearst. 



European Letters 



The Tariff Debate In England. 

An American feels at home in England just now 
for he constantly reads in the newspapers and hears 
on the streets the tariff arguments so familiar in the 
United States. I can almost imagine myself in the 
midst of a presidential campaign, with import duties 
as the only issue. I have been especially fortunate 
in arriving here at the very height of the discussion 
and I have been privileged to hear the best speakers 
on both sides. Hon. 'Joseph Chamberlain, lately sec- 
retary for the colonies, left the cabinet some three 
months ago in order to present to the country the 
tariff policy which he believed to be necessary. Not 
desiring to make the government responsible for the 
proposition put forth by him he turned his official 
duties over to another and has been conducting one 
of the most remarkable campaigns that England has 
seen in recent years. 

He enters the fight with a number of things to his 
credit. He is a great orator, he is pleasing in man- 
ner, experienced in debate, skillful in the arraignment 
of his adversaries, and possesses the faculty of so 

13 



14 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

holding the attention of his hearers as to make them 
eager to catch the next sentence. He is not an im- 
passioned speaker, he has no grand climaxes that 
overwhelm an audience, but he does have what his 
friends call a "restrained eloquence" that leaves the 
impression that he never quite reaches the limit of 
his powers. He is a man who would rank high in any 
land and as an antagonist he would not fear to meet 
the best on any platform. 

He is about five feet nine or ten inches in height 
and weighs about 175 pounds. He wears no beard 
and is impressive in appearance. The cartoonists take 
liberties with him as with other public men in draw- 
ings of him, and I may say in passing that there are 
some newspaper cartoonists over here who do ex- 
cellent work. 

Mr. Chamberlain is urging a departure from the 
free trade policy which England has followed for fifty 
years, and he defends his position on three grounds : 

First — That it is needed for the protection of Eng- 
lish manufacturers and English laborers. 

Second — That it is necessary for the defense and 
strengthening of the empire. 

Third — That a tariff can be used when necessary as 
a retaliatory weapon to make a breach in the tariff 
walls that other nations have erected. 

In presenting the first proposition he employes 
the usual protectionist arguments. He appeals to 
particular industries and promises better wages to 
labor and more constant employment. He complains 
that foreign products are being "dumped" in Eng- 



TARIFF DEBATE IN ENGLAND 15 

land. The foreigner is accused of selling his surplus 
wares here without profit or below cost while he sells 
for enough at home to enable him to carry on his 
business. 

I heard Mr. Chamberlain's speech at Cardiff, the 
chief city of Wales. It was an audience largely made 
up of wage-earners, and his appeals were adroit and 
elicited an enthusiastic response. He dwelt at length 
on the tin industry ; figured the growth of the industry 
from 1882 to 1892 and showed that during the next 
decade the tin industry had suffered by the establish- 
ment of tin plate mills in the United States. 

He assumed that if the English government had 
been authorized to make reciprocal treaties it might 
have persuaded the United States to forego the pro- 
tection of tin plate in exchange for trade advantages in 
some other direction. He estimated the loss that had 
come to Welsh workmen because of the lessened de- 
mand for their tin plate and he contended that it was 
necessary to give preferential treatment to the col- 
onies in order to increase or even to hold their at- 
tachment to the empire. 

In discussing retaliation he seemed to assume what 
the protectionists of the United States have often de- 
clared, namely, that the foreigner pays the tax; and 
his argument was that England ought to tax the goods 
coming in from other countries if other countries 
taxed goods imported from England. He has coined 
phrases that are going the rounds of the press, the 
most popular of which is embodied in the question, 
"If another nation strikes vou with a tariff tax, are 



16 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

you going to take it lying down?" This phrase 
aroused a spirit of pugnacity at Cardiff and was en- 
thusiastically applauded. 

In presenting the claims of the empire, Mr. 
Chamberlain occupies much the same position as the 
American protectionist who contends that a tariff wall 
makes our own country independent of other nations. 
In presenting this argument the late colonial secre- 
tary has the advantage of the great popularity which 
he won during the South African war, the spirit of 
empire being just now quite strong in England. 

So much for the leader of the tariff reform move- 
ment, for strange as it may seem the English crusade 
for the adoption of a tariff is being conducted through 
the Tariff Reform League, which, with Mr. Chamber- 
lain's endorsement, is asking for a campaign fund of 
$500,000. 

On the other side are, first, the conservatism that 
supports the settled policy of half a century; second, 
the political and economic arguments which weigh 
against a protective tariff, and, third, the ability and 
personal influence of the men who are arrayed against 
Mr. Chamberlain. I have attended a number of meet- 
ings of the opposition. The first was at St. Neots, 
Huntingtonshire, where I heard Mr. H. H. Asquith, 
one of the liberal leaders in parliament. He is of 
about the same height as Mr. Chamberlain, but 
heavier, his face and shoulders being considerably 
broader. Mr. Asquith differs very materially from 
Mr. Chamberlain in his style of oratory, but is a mas- 
ter in his line. His is more the argument of the law- 
yer. He is more logical and a closer reasoner. He 



TARIFF DEBATE IN ENGLAND 17 

is regarded as one of the ablest public men in Eng- 
land, and after listening to him for an hour I could 
easily believe his reputation to be well-earned. 

While he discussed with thoroughness all phases 
of the fiscal question, I was most impressed with his 
reply to what may be called the imperial part of Mr. 
Chamberlain's argument. He insisted that prefer- 
ential duties would weaken instead of strengthen the 
bonds that unite England to her colonies because par- 
tiality could not be shown to one industry without 
discrimination against the other industries, and he 
warned the advocates of protection not to divide the 
people of the colonies and the people of the home 
country into warring factions and suggested that 
when these factions were arrayed against each other 
in a contest for legislative advantage, the harmony of 
the nation would be disturbed and ill-will between the 
various sections, elements and industries engendered. 

At a house dinner of the National Liberal club in 
London I heard another member of parliament, Mr. 
R. S. Robson, a liberal, who took retaliation for his 
subject. Mr. Robson presented a clear, comprehen- 
sive and concise analysis of the policy of retaliation ; 
the strongest points made by him being, first, that re- 
taliation meant commercial war, and, second, that it 
contemplated a permanent policy of protection. He 
pointed out that no country had ever aimed a retalia- 
tory tariff at England; that tariffs in other countries 
were laid for domestic purposes and not out of an- 
tagonism to another country. He contended that oth- 
er countries instead of modifying their tariffs because 



18 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

of attempted retaliation on the part of England would 
be more likely excited to an unfriendliness which they 
had not before shown, and that if England were the 
aggressor, in such a tariff war she must necessarily 
be a large loser. He said that it was impossible to 
conceive of concessions being secured by a threat to 
raise a tariff wall in England. It would be necessary, 
he contended, if a retaliatory policy was undertaken to 
first impose a high tariff all around and then offer to 
reduce it in special cases. This would be a radical 
departure from the policy of free trade and would 
bring with it all the evils that had led to the abandon- 
ment of a protective policy under the leadership of 
Cobden. 

Besides the liberal opposition, Mr. Chamberlain 
has to meet the antagonism of a number of influential 
leaders who would indorse Mr. Balfour if he only pro- 
posed retaliation in a particular case where an open 
and grievous blow had been struck at England, but 
who are not willing to join Mr. Chamberlain in ad- 
vocating a return to a protective policy. 

I attended a great meeting held under the au- 
spices of the Free Food League and heard speeches 
delivered by the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Gosh- 
en. I was told that the duke was the only English 
statesman who ever took a nap during the progress of 
his own speech. Thus fore-warned, I was prepared 
for a season of rest, but the duke surprised his 
friends (and they are many) on this occasion and his 
speech has been the talk of the country since it was 
delivered. It was a powerful arraignment of the pro- 



TARIFF DEBATE IN ENGLAND 19 

posed tax on food, and taking into consideration the 
high standing and great prestige of the duke, will ex- 
ert a widespread influence on the decision of the 
controversy. The duke is a tall, strongly built man, 
with a long head and full sandy beard sprinkled with 
gray. He speaks with deliberation and emphasis, but 
lacks the graces of the other orators whom I had an 
oportunity to hear. If, however, ease and grace were 
wanting, the tremendous effectiveness of the pile 
driver and the battering ram make up for them. 

He denounced the proposition to put a tax upon the 
people's food as a blow to the welfare and greatness 
of the nation. He scouted the idea that the tax 
would not ultimately extend to all food or that it 
would not raise the price of food and showed that the 
increase in the cost of food and clothing would take 
from the laboring man any advantage which Mr. 
Chamberlain promised to bring by his protective pol- 
icy. 

At the Free Food meeting the duke was followed 
by Lord Goshen, a conspicuous leader of the unionist 
party. Though now about seventy years old, he 
possesses great vitality and entered into the discus- 
sion with an earnestness that bespeaks the extraor- 
dinary power of the man. In appearance he reminded 
me of Gladstone and of Paul Kruger. I should say 
that his face had some of the characteristics of both — 
rugged in its outlines and giving an impression of 
courage and strength combined with great intellect. 
He replied to Mr. Chamberlain's challenge, "Will you 
take it lying down?" with the question, "Will you 



20 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

hide behind a wall?" He denied that it was necessary 
for the Briton to build a barricade and conceal him- 
self behind it. 

In reply to the argument that the Englishman 
needed protection from the foreigner, he gave statis- 
tics to show that Germany, one of the protected coun- 
tries to which Mr. Chamberlain constantly refers, had 
an increasing number of the unemployed. His ref- 
erence to the increased consumption of horse meat in 
Germany and the decrease in the consumption of oth- 
er kinds of meat met with a response that seems like- 
ly to make "No horse meat" a slogan in the cam- 
paign. 

The last meeting which I attended was that at 
which Lord Rosebery made his reply to Mr. Chamber- 
lain. Lord Rosebery meets Mr. Chamberlain on an 
equal footing. He is about the same height, but a tri- 
fle stouter. He is an orator of great distinction, grace- 
ful, polished, of wide learning and great experience, 
and he possesses a wit that enables him to keep his 
audience in constant good humor. He has been prime 
minister and enjoys great popularity. His reception 
at the Surrey theatre, South London, was as cordial 
as Mr. Chamberlain's reception at Cardiff. With all 
the arts of the orator he repelled the attacks of Mr. 
Chamberlain and arraigned the policy of the conser- 
vatives. He denied that there was any excuse, to use 
his words, for the "lamentations of the modern Jere- 
miah," His lordship declared that the country had 
made great progress under the policy of free com- 
merce with the world and that England had the 



TARIFF DEBATE IN ENGLAND 21 

world for her granary and depicted the possible con- 
sequences if she attempted to wage war against those 
who furnished her bread and meat. 

He declared that the colonies could not supply the 
food that the people of England needed, but called 
Mr. Chamberlain's attention to the fact that Canada 
was "dumping" more iron into England than any of 
the protected countries complained of. He arraigned 
the conservative government's large and increasing 
expenditures and suggested that the government 
might better lessen the taxes upon the people than 
impose new taxes upon their food and clothing. 

He closed with an appeal for more technical in- 
struction; for a better understanding of the needs of 
their customers, and for a more earnest effort for the 
physical, intellectual and mopal advancement of the 
people. 

I will not attempt to predict the outcome of this 
fiscal controversy. I have missed my guess on a 
similar controversy in the United States and I shall 
not venture a prophecy in a foreign land. Mr. Cham- 
berlain's opponents believe that a return to protection 
would be taken as renunciation of England's ambi- 
tion to be "mistress of the seas," and that it would 
presage commercial isolation. It is a battle of giants 
over a great question and all the world interested in 
the result. 



Ireland and Her Leaders. 

November 29 was spent in Dublin, the 30th at 
Belfast and enroute to that city from Dublin.^ Dublin 
is a very substantial looking city and much more an- 
cient in appearance than Belfast, the latter reminding 
one more of an enterprising American city. We did 
not have a chance to visit any of the industries of Dub- 
lin, and only a linen factory and a shipyard in Bel- 
fast, but as the linen factory, the York Street Linen 
Mills, was one of the largest in Ireland, and the ship- 
yard, Harland & Wolff's, the largest in ttie world, they 
gave some idea of the industrial possibilities of the 
island. 

The lord mayor of Belfast, Sir Daniel Dixon, 
gave us a history of the municipal undertakings and 
extended to us every possible courtesy. To one ac- 
customed to the farms of the Mississippi and the Mis- 
souri valleys, the little farms of Ireland seemed con- 
tracted indeed, but what they lack in size, they make 
up in thoroughness of cultivation. Not a foot seemed to 
be wasted. At Birmingham I saw some Kerry cows, 
which I can best describe as pony cattle, that they 
told me were being bred in Ireland in preference to the 
larger breeds ; they are certainly more in keeping with 
the size of the farms. The farm houses are not large, 
but from the railroad train they looked neat and well 
kept. 



IRELAND AND HER LEADERS 23 

"p My visit to Ireland was too brief to enable me to 
look into the condition of the tenants in the various 
parts of the island, but by the courtesy of the lord 
mayor of Dublin, Mr. Timothy Harrington, and Mr. 
John Dillon, both members of parliament, I met a 
number of the prominent representatives of Ireland in 
national politics. A luncheon at the Mansion House 
was attended by some 75 of the Irish leaders, includ- 
ing Archbishop Walsh, John Redmond, John Dillon, 
Michael Davitt, William Field, Patrick O'Brien, sev- 
eral members of the city council, ex-Mayor Valentine 
Dillon, High Sheriff Thomas Powers, and Drs. Mc- 
Ardle and Cox, and other persons distinguished in 
various walks of life. 

The dinner at Mr. Dillon's gave me a chance to 
meet Mr. Bailey of the new land commission and Mr. 
Finucane, lately connected with the Indian depart- 
ment, and to become better acquainted with the more 
prominent of the Irish leaders whose names have be- 
come familiar to American readers, and whom I met 
at luncheon. 

Archbishop Walsh is one of the best known and 
most beloved of the Irish clergy, and he endeared 
himself to the friends of bimetallism throughout the 
world by the pamphlet which he wrote some years 
ago setting forth the effect of the gold standard upon 
the Irish tenant farmer. It was a genuine pleasure 
to make his personal acquaintance. It may be added, 
in passing, that the tenants of Ireland will be more 
than ever interested in the stable dollar when they 
have secured title to their lands and assumed the pay- 



24 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

merits which extend over more than sixty years. Any 
increase in the value of the dollar would increase the 
burden of these payments by lessening the price 
which they would obtain for the products of the soil. 

Mr. John Redmond is the leader of the Irish par- 
ty in parliament, and having visited the United 
States, is personally known to many of our people. He 
has the appearance of a well-to-do lawyer, is quick to 
catch a point, ready of speech and immensely popular 
with his people. He has the reputation of being one 
of the most forcible of the Irish orators, and I regret 
that I had no opportunity of hearing him speak. 

Mr. Dillon is a tall man, probably six feet one, 
with a scholarly face and wears a beard. His long 
experience in parliament, his thorough knowledge of 
the issues of the last quarter of a century, and his 
fidelity to the interests of the people of his land have 
given him a deservedly high place among the great 
Irishmen of the present generation. 

Mr. Michael Davitt has also had a conspicuous 
career, but is not now in parliament, having resigned 
as a protest against the Boer war. He is the oldest 
of the group and shows in his countenance the fight- 
ing qualities that have made his name known through- 
out the world. He is not a diplomat — he has not 
learned the language of the court. He is not a com- 
promiser, but a combatant, and his blows have been 
telling ones. 

The lord mayor of Dublin, Mr. Timothy Har- 
rington, has been honored with a third election as 
lord mayor, a position first held by Daniel O'Connell, 



IRELAND AND HER LEADERS 25 

but he is always at Westminster whenever there is an 
important vote in parliament. He is a typical Irish- 
man, good-natured, full of humor, well informed and 
a natural politician. j— 

At a dinner given a few days later at the Nation- 
al Liberal club in London by Mr. T. P. O'Connor, I 
met several other Irish members, among them Mr. 
William Redmond, brother of the leader of the Irish 
party, and himself a man of great ability and long 
parliamentary experience, and James Devlin, one of 
the most brilliant of the orators of the younger gener- 
ation. The oldest person at the O'Connor dinner was 
Mr. O'Brien, the last Irishman who enjoyed the dis- 
tinction of being sentenced to be hung, drawn and 
quartered. The host, Mr. O'Connor, while he rep- 
resents a Liverpool constituency and is not, therefore, 
technically speaking, a member of the Irish party, is 
one of the most prominent and influential of the Irish- 
men in the house of commons. He has lectured in the 
United States as well as in Europe, and is now editor 
of two weekly papers of large circulation. He showed 
his friendliness toward America and his appreciation 
of our country's resources by taking unto himself an 
American wife — a beautiful Texan. 

At Glasgow I met another member of parlia- 
ment, Mr. William McKillup, who, though a citizen 
of Glasgow represents an Irish district and takes an 
active interest in everything that affects the Emerald 
isle. 

Mr. Harrington and Mr. Redmond took me to 
the Dublin cemetery and we visited the graves of 



26 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

O'Connell and Parnell. The tomb of Ireland's great 
agitator is under a massive pile of granite, made to 
represent an old Irish tower. No monument has 
yet been erected to Parnell. The memory of the two 
dead statesmen and the presence of the living leaders 
recalled the struggle to which so many of Ireland's 
sons have devoted their lives, and it was a matter of 
extreme gratification to find that substantial progress 
is being made. 

It is true that home rule has not yet been secured, 
but the contest for home rule has focused attention 
upon the industrial and political condition of Erin, and 
a number of remedial measures have been adopted. 
First, the tenant was given title to his improvements 
and then the amount of the rent was judicially deter- 
mined. More recently the authorities have been build- 
in cottages for the rural laborers. Over 15,000 of these 
cottages have been already erected and arrangements 
are being made for some 19,000 more. These are much 
more comfortable than the former dwellings, and 
much safer from a sanitary point of view. The recent 
land purchase act, which went into effect on Novem- 
ber 1, seems likely to exert a very great influence upon 
the condition of the people. According to its terms the 
government is to buy the land of the landlord and sell 
it to the tenants. As the government can borrow 
money at a lower rate than the ordinary borrower, it 
is able to give the tenant much better terms than he 
gets from his present landlord, and at the same time 
purchase the land of the landlord at a price that is 
equitable. The landlords are showing a disposition to 



IRELAND AND HER LEADERS 27 

comply with the spirit of the law, although some of 
them are attempting to get a larger price for their 
land than it was worth prior to the passage of the 
law. The purpose of the law is to remove from poli- 
tics the landlord question, which has been a delicate 
one to deal with. Most of the larger estates were given 
to the ancestors of the present holders and many of 
the owners live in England and collect their rents 
through a local agent. The new law makes the gov- 
ernment the landlord and the tenant, by paying a cer- 
tain annual sum for 63 years, becomes the owner of 
the fee. He has the privilege of paying all or any 
part, at any time, and can dispose of his interest. The 
settlement which is now being effected, not only re- 
moves the friction which has existed between the ten- 
ant and the landlord, but puts the tenant in a position 
where he can appeal to the government with reas- 
onable certainty of redress in case unforeseen circum- 
stances make his lot harder than at present anticipat- 
ed. The assurance that he will become the owner of 
the fee will give to the Irish farmer an ambition that 
has heretofore been wanting, for he will be able to save 
without fear of an increase in the rent. Not only is 
the land question in process of settlement, but there 
have been at the same time other improvements which 
make for the permanent progress of the people. There 
is a constant increase in educational facilities, and a 
large number of co-operative banks have been estab- 
lished. Agricultural societies have been formed for 
the improvement of crops and stock, and the trend is 
dictinctly upward. The Irish leaders have not ob- 



28 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

tained all that they labored for — there is much to be 
secured before their work is complete, but when the 
history of Ireland is written, the leaders now living 
will be able to regard with justifiable pride the results 
of their devotion and sacrifice and their names will be 
added to the long list of Irish patriots and statesmen. 
^< In Dublin I paid my respects to Lord Dudley, 
lieutenant governor of Ireland, whose residence, the 
Viceregal Lodge, is in Phoenix Park, and found him 
so genial and affable a host that I am led to hope that 
in his administration of the executive branch of the 
government he will make the same attempt at just 
treatment that parliament has made in the enactment 
of the recent land measure. 

There is a general desire among the leaders of 
thought in Ireland to check the emigration from that 
country. They feel that Ireland under fair conditions 
can support a much larger population than she now 
has. Ireland, they say, has been drained of many of 
its most enterprising and vigorous sons and daugh- 
ters. It is hardly probable that the steps already taken 
will entirely check the movement toward the United 
States, but there is no doubt that the inhabitants of 
Ireland and their friends across the water contemplate 
the future with brighter hopes and anticipations than 
they have for a century. 



Growth of Municipal Ownership. 

Carved in the mantle of the library which ad- 
joins the reception room of the lord provost of Glas- 
gow is the motto, "Truth will prevail," and the tri- 
umph of truth is illustrated in the development of 
municipal ownership in the British Isles. 

Probably no city in the world has extended the 
sphere of municipal activity further than the metro- 
polis of Scotland — Glasgow. By the courtesy of the 
present lord provost, Sir James Ure Primrose, I 
learned something of the manner in which the city of 
Glasgow is administering the work that in most of 
our American cities have been left to private corpora- 
tons. It goes without saying that Glasgow owns and 
operates its water system, for that is usually the first 
public work that a city enters upon. In this case, 
however, the water instead of being furnished to the 
citizens at so much per thousand gallons or at fixed 
hydrant rates, is paid for by a tax upon the value of 
the property. The city's water supply is brought from 
Lake Katrine, forty miles away, and the city has re- 
cently laid a second pipe line to the lake. 

Glasgow also owns the gas plant and furnishes 
gas to consumers at about 50 cents per thousand cubic 
feet. More recently the city has entered upon the 
work of supplying electricity both to the city and to 
private houses. The tramways, too, are owned and 

29 



30 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

operated by the municipality. The service is excel- 
lent and the fare depends upon the distance traveled, 
2d (4 cents) being the rate for a long ride and Id (2 
cents) for shorter distances. At certain hours in 
the day there are work trams that carry the laboring 
man from one end of the city to the other for J / 2 d or 
1 cent. The lord provost informed me that it was 
the settled policy of the city to use all the income 
from public service corporations in improving the ser- 
vice and lessening the charge. In some places the 
surplus, as will be shown hereafter, is turned into the 
city fund and to that extent lessens the taxes (or rates 
as city taxes are called in Great Britain). The muni- 
cipal authorities in Glasgow have from the beginning 
opposed this form of indirect taxation and insisted 
that the service should be rendered to the public at 
absolute cost, leaving the people to support the city 
government by direct taxation. 

Not only does Glasgow furnish water, gas, electric- 
ity and street car service to its people at cost, but it 
has undertaken other work still further in advance of 
American cities. It has built a number of model tene- 
ment houses for the poor and rents them at something 
less than the rate private individuals charge for similar 
quarters. These buildings have had for their primary 
object the improvement of the sanitary condition of 
the city. Slums in which disease was rife have been 
bought, cleansed and built up with the result that the 
death rate has been reduced in those localities. These 
tenement houses are rented by the week or month and 
the charge for those that I visited was about $36 per 



MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 31 

year, this covering taxes and water. The rooms are 
commodious and well lighted and each suite contains 
a cooking range fitted into the chimney place. 

The city has also established a number of lodg- 
ing houses for single men and here lodgings can be 
obtained ranging from 3 l-2d (7 cents) to 4 l-2d (9 
cents) per night. The lodger has the privilege and 
most of them take advantage of it, of cooking his 
meals in a large kitchen connected with the building, 
and also has the use of the dining room and reading 
room. One lodging house is set apart for widowers 
with children and is, I am informed, the only one of 
its kind in the world. About one hundred families, 
including in all 300 persons, have rooms here. At- 
tendants are on duty to look after the children during 
the day, while the fathers are at work and meals are 
furnished to such as desire them at a minimum rate. 

The reading public is already familiar with the 
public baths which have for a number of years been 
in operation in Glasgow, and to these baths have been 
added public wash houses where women can bring the 
family linen and at the rate of 2d per hour make use 
of the tubs and drying room. I visited one of these 
wash-rooms and found that the number of people tak- 
ing advantage of it during the first year was, in round 
numbers 33,000, in the second year 34,000, in the third 
year 35,000, and in the fourth year 37,000. 

London is also making progress in the work of 
municipalizing its public service. The city proper 
covers a very small territory, in fact, but a mile square, 
the greater part of the city being under the control 



32 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

of what is called the London county council. The Lon- 
don city council has recently obtained from parliament 
the right to deal with the water problem and a com- 
mission has been created for this purpose and is now 
at work appraising the value of the different water 
companies which are to be taken over by the said 
council. The enormous price demanded by these com- 
panies gives overwhelming proof of London's folly in 
having so long delayed the undertaking of this public 
work. As there are no surface street cars in the 
city of London, the city council has not had the tram- 
way question to deal with. The London county 
council has moved much more rapidly than the city 
council, and I am indebted to Mr. John Burns, M. P., 
also councilman for the district of Battersea, for much 
valuable information on this subject. He and Mr. A. 
J. Shepheard, with whom I crossed the ocean, be- 
ing kind enough to introduce me to the members of 
the county council and to place before me the statis- 
tics in possession of the officials. The county council 
besides taking over the water service is also furnish- 
ing to some extent electricity. Just now the 
county council is putting down tramways and pre- 
paring to follow in the footsteps of Glasgow in the 
matter of furnishing transit for its citizens. Like 
Glasgow, the county council is also furnishing lodg- 
ing houses for the poorer classes and by so doing is 
improving the sanitary conditions of the city. In 
some portions the council is erecting tenement houses, 
here as in Glasgow the council selecting the worst 
portions of the city and substituting modern and well- 
equipped houses for the unsightly and unhealthy tene- 



MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 33 

ment houses that formerly occupied the ground. Mr. 
Burns took me through one of these sections where 
about four thousand people are being provided with 
homes with every modern improvement and at very 
low rental. Finding that the death rate among the 
children of the poor was alarmingly great, the county 
council established a sterilized milk station and the 
death rate among the children has been very mate- 
rially decreased. 

Nottingham, England, was visited on the invita- 
tion of Mr. A. W. Black, until recently mayor. I be- 
came acquainted with him on the passage across the 
Atlantic, and found that he had interested himself in 
the work of extending the municipal control of public 
utilities. From him and the town clerk, Sir Samuel 
Johnson, I learned that the city had been furnishing 
water to its citizens for about thirty years and gas for 
a still longer time. The price of gas has-been re- 
duced from time to time until it is now about 50 cents 
per thousand for private citizens, and even at this 
low rate the gas plant pays into the city treasury a net 
profit of about $120,000 a year. It is only about five 
years since the city entered upon the work of furnish- 
ing electricity, but the profit from that source is now 
nearly $45,000 annually. The city has recently taken 
over the tramways and notwithstanding that it has 
raised the wages of the employes, shortened their 
hours of labor, improved the service, extended the 
lines and reduced the fares, it has now derived about 
$90,000 profit from the earnings of the tramways. This 
has been the rule wherever private services have been 



34 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

undertaken by the municipalities. Nottingham has a 
population of about 250,000. 

I have taken these cities as an illustration, they 
being the ones concerning which I have investigated 
most carefully. 

Birmingham furnishes water and light to its 
people, and has just decided to take charge of the 
tramway service. It already owns the tracks, but 
has been allowing private corporations to run the 
cars. The people have decided to operate the lines 
in the future. 

In Belfast, I found that the city had decided to 
take charge of the tramway tracks, the only disputed 
question being whether the city would pledge itself to 
the permanent operation of the lines or reserve the 
right to permit private corporations to use the tracks. 

Nothing has impressed me more in my visit to the 
British Isles than the interest which the leading citi- 
zens of the various municipalities are taking in pro- 
blems of government and sociology. It must be re- 
membered that here the members of the city councils 
receive no pay. The work that they do is entirely 
gratuitous, and I have found that the councils are 
composed of representatives of all classes of society. 

Many of the successful business men, profession- 
al men and educators are to be found devoting a por- 
tion of their time, sometimes a very considerable por- 
tion to the work of the city. They attend meetings, 
serve on committees and carry on investigations, and 
find their recompense not in a salary, but in the honor 



MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 35 

which attaches to the position and in the conscious- 
ness that they are giving something of value to their 
fellows. 

The fact that English cities are doing the work 
that in American cities is largely let out to private 
corporations may explain the relative absence of cor- 
ruption as compared with some of our American cities, 
but there is no doubt that among the people generally 
service in the city government is more highly re- 
garded than it is in most the large cities of the United 
States. 

I observed with interest the enthusiasm manifest- 
ed by the officials in the work being done by the re- 
spective cities. At Birmingham, Mr. Roland H. 
Barkley, a member of the city council, by request of 
the lord mayor, called upon me, and not only showed 
great familiarity with the work of the city govern- 
ment, but manifested an intense desire to secure for 
his city the methods that had been shown by exper- 
ience to be the best. 

Mr. Black, recently mayor of Nottingham, is a 
very successful lace manufacturer, and yet he seemed 
as much concerned about the affairs of the city as 
about the details of his own business. Lord Mayor 
Harrington of Dublin, Lord Mayor Dixon of Belfast 
and Lord Provost Primrose of Glasgow, were all 
alive to the importance of their work, and seemed to 
make the discharge of their duties their chief con- 
cern. 

In this connection, I desire to record my ap- 
preciation of the public service of one of the most 



36 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

interesting and agreeable men whom I have met in 
the Old World, Mr. John Burns. He began his in- 
dustrial life at the age of ten as a maker of candles. He 
was afterwards apprenticed as a machinist, and after 
acquiring proficiency in his trade followed that line 
of employment until his associates made him their 
representative in the city government. He was soon 
afterwards sent to parliament, and has for some fif- 
teen years represented his district in both bodies. He 
is only 45, but his hair and beard are so streaked with 
gray that one would think him ten years older. He 
is a little below medium height, strongly built, and 
very active and energetic. A diligent student, quick- 
witted and effective in speech, it is not surprising that 
he stands today among the world's foremost represen- 
tatives of the wage-earners. He is opposed to both 
drinking and gambling. He receives no salary either 
as a member of the county council or as a member of 
parliament, but is supported by his association which 
pays him what is equivalent to a thousand dollars a 
year. With this very meagre income he devotes his 
life to public work, and I have not met a more con- 
scientious or unselfish public servant. And yet what 
Mr. Burns is doing on a large scale, many others are 
doing in a lesser degree. 

I wish that all the citizens of my country could 
come into contact with the public men whom I have 
met, and catch something of the earnestness with 
which they are applying themselves to the solution of 
the municipal problems that press upon the present 
generation. It would certainly increase the velocity 



MUNICIPAL OWNERSHIP 37 

of American reforms, and arouse that latent patriot- 
ism which only needs arousing to cope successfully 
with all difficulties. 

While it may seem that the leaders of municipal 
government in Europe are somewhat altruistic in their 
labors, there is a broader sense in which they are quite 
selfish, but it is that laudable selfishness which mani- 
fests itself in one's desire to lift himself up, not by 
dragging down others or doing injustice to others, 
but by lifting up the level upon which all stand. Those 
who add to the comfort and happiness of their com- 
munity are making their own lives and property more 
secure. Those who are endeavoring to infuse hope 
and ambition into the hearts of the hopeless and their 
children — are working more wisely than those who 
are so short-sighted as to believe that the accumulation 
of money is the only object of life. 

Let us hope that the time is near at hand when 
the successful business men in the United States, in- 
stead of continuing their accumulations to the very 
end of life, will be satisfied with a competency and 
when this is secured give to their country the benefit 
of their experience, their intelligence and their con- 
science, as many of the business men of England, 
Scotland and Ireland are now doing. 



France and Her People. 

My call upon President Loubet was the most in- 
teresting incident of my visit to France. It was ar- 
ranged by General Horace Porter, American ambassa- 
dor to France, who conducted us to the Elysee pal- 
ace, which is the White house of the French republic. 

President Loubet is probably the most demo- 
cratic executive that Frane has ever had. He re- 
minded me of our former President Benjamin Harri- 
son and of another of our distinguished citizens, An- 
drew Carnegie — not exactly like either, but resem- 
bling both — the former in appearance, the latter in 
manner as well as appearance. 

President Loubet is below the medium height, 
even of Frenchmen. His shoulders are broad and 
his frame indicative of great physical strength. His 
hair is snow white, as are also his beard and mus- 
tache. He wears his beard cut square at the chin. 

His eyes are dark blue, suggesting that his hair 
and beard were blond before the years bleached them. 
His voice is soft, and he speaks with great vivacity, 
emphasizing his words by expressive gestures. 

He received us in his working room, a beautiful 
semi-oval apartment, whose large windows open into 
the beautiful gardens attached to the Elysee palace. 
The oval end of the room bore great priceless Gobelin 
tapestry, depicting abundance. On a pedestal under 

58 



FRANCE AND HER PEOPLE 39 

j the tapestry was a marble bust of the Minerva-like 
head of the Goddess of Liberty of the French repub- 
lic. 

The president's desk is a long, flat table, eminent- 
ly business looking, covered with papers and lighted 
by two desk lamps and green shades. A huge electrol 1 
ier dependent from the frescoed ceiling filled the room 
with light. 

The president wore a frock coat, the tri-colored 
button of the Legion of Honor adorning the lapel. 

President Loubet is a very cordial man, and takes 
pride in the fact that, like most of our American pres- 
idents, he has worked his way up from the ranks of 
the common people. His father was a farmer near 
the vilage of Montelimar. ' 

Young Loubet studied law, and then public af- 
fairs. He has held nearly every office in the gift of 
the people. He began as mayor of Montelimar, 
where his aged mother still lives in the old farm- 
house. 

He was elected a deputy in 1876, and in 1886 was 
elected to the senate. He was minister of public 
works in 1887, and minister of the interior in 1892. In 
1895 he was elected president of the senate, and in 
1899 he was elected president of the republic. 

He talked freely on various questions that came 
up for consideration, and showed himself to be thor- 
oughly informed upon the economic as well as the 
political questions with which France has to deal 
His personal popularity and strong good sense have 
been of inestimable value to his country in the trying 
times caused bv the Drevfus case. 



40 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

President Loubet has been prominently connected 
with the bimetallic movement, and shows himself fa- 
miliar with the principles upon which bimetallists rely 
in their defense of that system of finance. 

The president, like all the Frenchmen whom I 
met, feels very friendly toward the United States, and 
it goes without saying that France under his admin- 
istration is not likely to do anything at which our 
country can take just offense. 

It was gratifying to me to hear him express so 
much good will, for it was evidence of the attachment 
which the French people feel toward those republican 
principles of government which they have established 
by so much struggle and sacrifice. 

Municipal ownership has not made as much 
progress in France as in England, although most of 
the cities now own their water works, and some of 
them their lighting plants. The railroads are nearly 
all owned by private corporations, but they operate 
under charters running about 100 years, half of which 
time has now elapsed. 

According to the charters, the government guar- 
anteed a certain rate of interest on the investment, 
besides a certain contribution to the sinking fund, and 
at the end of the charter the roads become the proper- 
ty of the state. 

Although it is nearly fifty years before the chart- 
ers expire, the course to be adopted by the govern- 
ment is already being discussed, some insisting that 
the government should take over the roads and oper- 
ate them — others favoring an arrangement that will 



FRANCE AND HER PEOPLE 41 

continue private operation, although the government 
will be owner of the property. The same difference of 
opinion to be found in our own country is to be found 
here, and some of the high officials are strongly op- 
posed to the government entering upon the operation 
of the roads. 

President Loubet spoke with evident gratification 
of the general diffusion of wealth in France. He said 
that they had few men of large fortunes, but a great 
many men of moderate means, and he felt that the 
republic was to be congratulated upon the fact that 
the resources of the country are so largely in the 
hands of the people. 

He explained that the government loans were 
taken by the people in small sums and subscribed 
many times over. Very few of the bonds represent- 
ing the French debt are held outside of France. The 
debt furnishes a sort of savings bank for the citizens, 
and their eagerness to invest in "rentes" (the govern- 
ment bonds) is proof of their patriotism as well as of 
their thrift. 

I heard so much of the French peasant that I de- 
voted one day to a visit into the country. Going out 
some fifty miles from Paris I found a village of about 
eighty families. Selecting a representative peasant, I 
questioned him about the present condition and pros- 
pects of the French farmer. I found that about three- 
fourths of the peasants of that village owned their 
homes, but that only about one-fourth owned the 
farms they tilled. 

I should explain that the French peasants do not 



42 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

as a rule live upon the farms, as is the custom in the 
United States. With us, whether a farmer owns for- 
ty acres or a quarter section, he usually lives upon the 
land, and the houses are therefore scattered at inter- 
vals over the country. 

The French peasants, on the contrary, are inclined 
to gather in villages most of them owning their houses 
and gardens, but going out into the country to culti- 
vate their fields. Sometimes a peasant will have a 
vineyard in one direction from his home, a pasture in 
another and a wheat or beet field in yet another di- 
rection. 

These fields are sometimes owned, but more often 
are rented. The landlord aims to get about 4 per cent 
annually on his investment. The tenant, however, 
pays the taxes, which sometimes amount to 1 or 2 
per cent more. 

The peasants complain that the horses which 
they need to cultivate their crops are made more ex- 
pensive by the increased consumption of horse-flesh 
as food, the demand having raised the price of horses. 

The same cause has operated, so I was informed, 
to reduce the price of cattle. The widespread use of 
automobiles has lessened the price of straw in Paris, 
and this has been felt by the wheat growers. 

I found the peasant with whom I talked to be an 
ardent protectionist. He spoke as if the farmers were 
driven to it as a last resort. As I was leaving he as- 
sured me that he was glad to speak to a "republican" 
and said he would not have talked to me at all if I 
had not been one. 



FRANCE AND HER PEOPLE 43 

This was an evidence of his loyalty to the exist- 
ing regime in France and also gave additional proof 
of the fact that the republican party in the United 
States has an advantage in appealing to newly-arri- 
ed immigrants merely by reason of its name. 

Foreigners are much better acquainted with the 
word "republic" than with the word "democracy," 
and I find that republican speakers have taken advan- 
tage of this fact and represented the republican party 
as the only exponent of the doctrines of a republic. 

The New York Independent about a year ago 
printed the autobiography of a foreign born citizen, 
who presented the same idea and told of a republican 
speech in which this argument was made by the ora- 
tor. 

The birth rate in France scarcely exceeds the 
death rate, and to my surprise I found that the increase 
in the country was even less than in Paris, in propor- 
tion to the population. One Frenchman, apparently 
well informed, told me that there were small villages 
in which it was difficult to find a child. 

In the village which I visited I was told that the 
families average two or three children. To show, 
however, that the small family was not the universal 
rule, attention was called to one family there in which 
there were eleven children. 

The French peasant is a very industrious man and 
cultivates his land with great care, and as soon as he 
saves a little money he tries to add to the area of his 
farm. The wife is usually an efficient helper, whether 



44 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

in the city or in the country. In the city she is often 
co-partner with her husband in the store, and assists 
him to save. 

Whether the tendency of the peasants to gather 
in villages rather than to live each on his own farm 
is due to their sociability or is a relic of the feudal 
system, I cannot say — both reasons were given. 

The French peasant has reason to feel the bur- 
den of militarism, but the recollection of the last war 
with Germany is so fresh in his mind that he is not 
likely to make any vigorous protest as long as he be- 
lieves a large army necessary for the protection of the 
republic. 

The sentiment of the French people on this sub- 
ject is shown by the fact that the figure representing 
Alsace-Lorraine in the group of statues in the beau- 
tiful Place de la Concorde is always covered with 
mourning wreaths. 

I visited the Bank of France, where I was re- 
ceived by the governor, M. Georges Pallain. The 
bank's capital stock is about $40,000,000, and it pays 
a dividend of about 12 per cent, equal to about 4 per 
cent on the present market value of the stock. The 
deposits are much smaller in proportion to the capital 
than are the deposits of our large American banks. 
This is true of the Bank of England, and likewise of 
the banks of Mexico. 

This smaller proportion between the deposits and 
the capital stock arrested my attention because in the 
United States the proportion is sometimes so great 
as to leave little margin for shrinkage in the event of 



FRANCE AND HER PEOPLE 45 

industrial disturbance. If a bank has loans amounting 
to ten times its capital stock a shrinkage of one-tenth 
in the value of its assets would wipe out the capital. 

The Bank of France, the Bank of England, and 
the leading banks of Mexico seem to be conducted 
on a more conservative basis. The Bank of England 
and the Bank of France differ largely in their note 
issues. The former has the right to issue uncovered 
notes to the extent of the bank's loan to the English 
government. Upon this loan the bank receives no 
interest, the note issue being considered an equivalent 
as no reserve is required to be kept against these 
notes. The bank can also issue notes in addition to 
these, but I found to my surprise that this note issue 
is not profitable to the bank, since these notes are 
virtually gold certificates, the bank being required to 
keep on hand an equal amount of gold as a redemption 
fund. 

The Bank of France has outstanding nearly $900,- 
000,000 in notes, which is the paper money of the 
country. The bank has the option of redeemnig these 
notes either in gold or silver, and it exercises that 
option by refusing to pay gold when gold becomes 
scarce, or when it seems undesirable to furnish gold 
for export. 

It has recently refused gold, and those desiring to 
export that metal have had to purchase it at slight 
premium. 

The "gold contract," which has become so com- 
mon in the United States, and which was used to ter- 
rorize the public in 1896, seems to be unknown in 



46 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

France ; or at least I could find no one who knew any- 
thing about such contracts. They are regarded as 
contrary to public policy. 

The president of the Bank of France is appointed 
by the government, so that the bank stands in a dif- 
ferent attitude toward the government from the na- 
tional banks of our country. 

.,,.-''' I had the pleasure of meeting a number of prom- 
inent Frenchmen during my visit to Paris, among 
them Senator Combes, the prime minister, who is just 
now a most conspicuous figure in the contest be- 
tween the government and the various religious ord- 
ers ; Senator Clemenceau, one of the ablest editors in 
Paris, and a brilliant conversationalist ; Baron d'Esto- 
nelles de Constant, a man of high ideals and leader of 
the peace movement in France; the Rev. Albert Koh- 
ler, author of "The Religion of Effort," and the Rev. 
Charles Wagner, whose book, "The Simple Life," has 
had such large circulation in the United States. 

The Rev. Mr. Wagner is just such a looking man 
as you would expect to write such a book — strong, 
rugged and earnest. He impresses you as a man 
with a mission, and although young in years he has 
already made an impress upon the thought of the 
world. His book is a protest against the materialism 
which is making man the slave of his possessions. 

The influence which Mr. Wagner has already ex- 
erted shows the power of a great thought, even when 
it must cross the boundaries of nations and pass 
through translation into many different tongues. I 
shall remember my communion with this apostle of 



FRANCE AND HER PEOPLE 47 

simplicity as one remembers a visit to a refreshing 
spring. 

Dr. Max Nordau, the famous author of "Degener- 
acy," although a German, lives in Paris. I enjoyed my 
call upon him very much. One quickly recognizes the 
alertness of his mind, his brilliant powers of general- 
ization and his aptness in epigram. I also had the 
pleasure of meeting Senator Fougeirol, a noted advo- 
cate of bimetallism. 

The visitor to Paris is immediately impressed by 
the magnificence of the city's boulevards, parks and 
public squares. There is an elegant spaciousness 
about the boulevards and squares that surpasses any- 
thing I have seen elsewhere. 

Parisians assert that the Avenue des Champs Ely- 
sees is the finest in the world, and so far as my ob- 
servation goes I am not prepared to dispute the claim. 
The beauty of Paris deserves all the adjectives that 
have been lavished upon it. 

One might dwell at length upon the almost end- 
less array of brilliant shop windows where jewelry, 
bric-a-brac, hats, gowns and mantles are displayed 
(and I am not surprised that Paris is the Mecca for 
women), but I desire to refer briefly to the more 
permanent beauty of Paris— the beauty of its architec- 
ture, sculptures and paintings. 

Paris' public buildings, ancient and modern, com- 
bine solidity with beauty. The statutes, columns and 
arches that adorn the parks and boulevards bespeak 
the skill of the artists and the appreciation of the pub- 
lic which pays for their maintenance. 



48 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Paris' many picture galleries, chief of which are 
the Louvre and the Luxembourg, contain, as all the 
world knows, extraordinary collections of treasures 
of art. The encouragement given by the government 
to every form of art has made Paris the abode of stu- 
dents from the four corners of the earth. 

The huge palaces at Versailles and Fountaine- 
bleau are interesting relics of the monarchical period, 
and they are instructive also, in that they draw a con- 
trast between the days of the empire and the present 
time. The extremes of society have been drawn clos- 
er together by the growth of democracy, and the of- 
ficials chosen by the people and governing by author- 
ity of the people are much nearer to the people who 
pay the taxes and support the government than the 
kings who lived in gorgeous palaces and claimed to 
rule by right divine. 

I have left to the last those reminders of earlier 
France, which are connected with the reigns of Na- 
poleon. You cannot visit Paris without being made 
familiar with the face of the "Little Corsican," for it 
stares at you from the shop windows and looks down 
at you from the walls of palaces and galleries. 

You see the figure of "the man of destiny" in 
marble and bronze, sometimes on a level with the eye, 
sometimes piercing the sky, as it does in the Place 
Vendome, where it is perched on top of a lofty col- 
umn, whose pedestal and sides are covered with pan- 
els in relief made from cannon captured by Napoleon 
in battle. 

The gigantic Arch of Triumph on the Champs 
Elysees, commenced by Napoleon, in commemoration 



FRANCE AND HER PEOPLE 49 

of his successes, testifies to the splendor of his con- 
ceptions. 

But overshadowing all other Napoleonic monu- 
ments is his tomb on the banks of the Seine, ad- 
joining the Invalides. Its gilded dome attracts atten- 
tion from afar, and on nearer approach one is charmed 
with the strength of its walls and the symmetry of 
its proportions. 

At the door the guard cautions the thoughtless 
to enter with uncovered head, but the admonition is 
seldom necessary, for an air of solemnity pervades the 
place. 

In the center of the rotunda, beneath the fres- 
coed vault of the great dome, is a circular crypt. Lean- 
ing over the heavy marble balustrade I gazed on the 
massive sarcophagus below, which contains all that 
was mortal of that marvellous combination of intellect 
and will. 

The sarcophagus is made of dark red porphyry, a 
fitly chosen stone that might have been colored by the 
mingling of the intoxicating wine of ambition with 
the blood spilled to satisfy it. 

Looking down upon the sarcophagus and the 
stands of tattered battle flags that surround it, I re- 
viewed the tragic career of this grand master of the art 
of slaughter, and weighed, as best I could, the claims 
made for him by his friends. And then I found my- 
self wondering what the harvest might have been had 
Napoleon's genius led him along peaceful paths, had 
the soil of Europe been stirred by the ploughshare 



50 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

rather than by his trenchant blade, and the reaping 
done by implements less destructive than his shot 
and shell. 

Just beyond and above the entombed emperor 
stands a cross upon which hangs a life-sized figure of 
the Christ, flooded by a mellow lemon-colored light, 
which pours through the stained glass windows of 
the chapel. 

I know not whether it was by accident or design 
that this god of war thus sleeps, as it were, at the 
very feet of the Prince of Peace. 

Whether so intended or not, it will to those who 
accept the teachings of the sermon on the Mount, 
symbolize love's final victory over force and the tri- 
umph of that philosophy which finds happiness in 
helpful service and glory in doing good. 



The Republic of Switzerland. 

No wonder Switzerland is free. The beauty of 
the country inspires a love of native land and the 
mountains form a natural fortress behind which the 
Swiss people could withstand armies many times the 
size of their own. Nowhere can one find as great a 
variety of landscape in a day's ride by train as in 
Switzerland. The road from Berne via Chiasso, on 
the Italian border, to Italy passes along the shores 
of lakes whose transparent waters reflect the precipit- 
ous rocks that overhang them ; by mountain streams 
that dash and foam madly as if anxious to escape from 
the solitude of the hills into the companionship of the 
larger waters of lake and sea, across the gorges, 
around the foothills and through the nine-mile tunnel 
of St. Gothard that pierces the mountain a mile be- 
neath the summit, and then down into the valleys that 
widen out from the base of the Alps. This day's 
enthralling ride reminds one of a cinematographic 
film, so quickly do the views change and so different 
is each from the other. Along the lower levels are 
tiny farms and vineyards, a little higher up are ter- 
raced pastures and quaint farm houses, with gabled 
roofs — often residence and barn are under the same 
roof! The mountain sides are scarred with the chutes 
down which the peasants drag timber on the snow. 
One passes through a great variety of climate in de- 
scending from the City of Mexico to Vera Cruz, but 

51 



52 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

there one does not see such a succession of picturesque 
views as greets the eye in the ride across the Alps. 

One would suppose that the people of Switzerland 
could find ample employment in supplying the wants 
of those who temporarily visit their land, drawn by its 
unusual attractions for the tourist, but to the industry 
of hotelkeeping are added two that have made Switz- 
erland famous throughout the world — watchmaking 
and wood carving. While watches are manufactured 
as well and as cheaply in the United States as in 
Switzerland, this industry is one that makes its pres- 
ence known in every city of this mountain republic. 
The genius of the Swiss for wood carving manifests 
itself in innumerable ways. The cuckoo clock and the 
bear — the symbol of Switzerland, as the eagle is of 
the United States — are seen in shop windows every- 
where; the bear in innumerable postures, the clock in 
innumerable sizes. At Berne I found some wooden 
nut-crackers formed to resemble a head, the lower jaw 
working as a lever and crushing the nut against the 
upper jaw. I observed one nut-cracker made to re- 
semble President Roosevelt, and another former Col- 
onial Secretary Chamberlain of England. I presume 
that the manufacturer intended to suggest that these 
two statesmen have more nuts to crack just now than 
any other men of political prominence! 

More interesting, however, than its scenery or its 
industries is the government of Switzerland. It is 
the most democratic government on the face of the 
earth, if the word democratic is taken to mean the rule 
of the people, for in Switzerland the people rule more 



SWITZERLAND. 53 

completely than anywhere else. In some of the small 
cantons the people meet at stated times and act upon 
political matters in public meeting, recalling the old 
town hall meeting of New England. In all the can- 
tons and in the federal government they have the in- 
itiative and referendum. The latter has been in use 
since 1874; the former has been adopted more recently. 

From the courteous assistant secretary of state I 
learned that during the last twenty-nine years 235 fed- 
eral laws have been submitted to the people by means 
of the referendum, of which 210 were adopted and 
twenty-five rejected. The total voting population of 
Switzerland is about 768,000, and it requires a petition 
signed by 30,000 — less than 5 per cent of the voting 
population — to secure a referendum vote on any bill. 
Fifty thousand voters can petition for the enactment 
of any desired law, and when such a petition is filed 
the federal legislature can either pass the law or refuse 
to pass it. If it refuses, however, its action must be 
passed upon by a referendum vote. Since the exist- 
ence of this provision six petitions have been pre- 
sented, and in every case the legislature refused to 
pass the law demanded by the petitioners. In five 
cases the people at the referendum vote sustained the 
leislature ; in one case the action of the legislature was 
overruled by the voters. In this instance the people 
had petitioned for the passage of a law that would 
prevent the slaughter of animals for food until after 
they had been rendered insensible. 

I found that the Swiss people are so pleased with 
the popular control over government given them by 



54 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

the initiative and referendum, that there is no possi- 
bility that any party will attempt to attack it, although 
there are some that would prefer the representative 
system freed from the restraint which the initiative 
and referendum give. Their arguments are, first, that 
the legislators knowing that the people can initiate 
legislation feel less responsibility; and, second, that 
as the legislators' actions can be reviewed by the peo- 
ple, the legislators are more timid about introducing 
needed reforms. The friends of the initiative and ref- 
erendum meet these arguments by declaring that the 
legislators are really not relieved from responsibility, 
but on the other hand are incited to action by the fact 
that the people can act in the event that their inter- 
ests are neglected by the legislature and that the tim- 
idity suggested is only likely to prevent legislation 
when the legislators themselves doubt the merit of the 
proposed action. 

By courtesy of the American minister, Mr. Hill, I 
had the honor of meeting Dr. Adolphe Deucher, ''pres- 
ident of the Swiss confederation," as he is styled. He 
is of German blood, as his name would indicate, and 
he is a fine representative of the scholarly, big-hearted 
Teuton. He is a tall, slender man, of about 60, with a 
ruddy face, white mustache and scanty white hair. He 
speaks with frankness and conviction and is as simple 
in his manners as the humblest of his people. He has 
been president once before, and has represented his 
canton in the federal legislature. He lives very unos- 
tentatiously, as becomes an official whose salary is 
only $2,750 a year. He receives $250 a year more than 



SWITZERLAND. 55 

his colleagues in the federal council. Switzerland has 
no executive mansion and the president lives in a 
modest hotel near the capitol. 

Three languages are spoken in Switzerland — 
French, German, Italian. French prevails in the 
region about Geneva, German in and north of Berrc 
and Italian at the southeast near the Italian border. 
German is perhaps dominant, if any one tongue can 
be sait! to dominate, with French and Italian fo!!ov<- 
ing in the order named. The debates in the federal 
legislature are conducted in the three tongues, and 
are reported therein officially. No attempt is made to 
interfere with the teaching of the language that each 
of the three communities desires, the cantons being 
independent in matters of local legislation, just as are 
the states in our country. There seems to be no jeal- 
ousy or enmity between the different sections except 
to the extent of a healthful rivalry between them. The 
feeling of independence, however, is so strong that no 
federal government could exist without a clear recog- 
nition of the rights of the component states or cantons. 

As a nation, Switzerland with her five million peo- 
ple does not attract the attention that neighboring na- 
tions do, and in a contest at arms, except upon her 
own soil, she could not hope to achieve much, but in 
that high forum where conscience dictates and where 
reason rules she is a conspicuous member of the sister- 
hood of nations. If we believe the world to be making 
progress toward nobler national ideals, we may expert 
Switzerland to occupy a position of increasing import- 
ance, for the love of liberty that characterizes her 



56 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

people, the democratic character of her institutions 
and the industry of her citizens all combine to give her 
assurance of increasing prestige. 

I cannot refrain here from giving expression to a 
thought that has grown upon me since my arrival in 
Europe^ I found our ambassador to England, Mr, 

loate, preparing to leave his residence in Carlton 
House Terrace, London, because of the prospect*, e 
return of its owner, Lord Curzon, from India. I 
learned that our ambassadors to France have of^n 
found difficulty in finding suiiable houses in Paris, 
while I found that our minister to Switzerland, Mr. 
Hill, is living in Geneva because he has not been able 
thus far to find a residence in Berne, the capital. I 
was also informed that our ambassador to Italy, Mr. 
Meyer, was compelled to live in a hotel in Rome for 
a year after his appointment, because he was unable 
to find a suitable house for the embassy. -\The trials 
of our diplomatic representatives in Europe, together 
with the high rents they are compelled to pay for their 
residences, have convinced me that we as a people are 
at fault in not providing permanent and appropriate 
domiciles for our ambassadors and ministers at for- 
eign capitals. In the great cities of Europe it is not 
only impossible to rent at a moderate price a house 
suitable for our embassy, but it is often difficult to 
secure a convenient location at any price. It is 
scarcely democratic toplace upon an official an expense 
so great as to preclude the appointment of a man of 
moderate means ; nor does it comport with the dignity 
of our nation to make the choice of an ambassadorial 
or ministerial residence dependent upon chance and 



SWITZERLAND. 57 

circumstance. I have been pleased to observe that 
our representatives in Europe are conspicuous in the 
diplomatic circle at court functions because of their 
modest attire, but it is not necessary that our ambas- 
sadors' and ministers' homes should be on wheels in 
order to be democratic. I believe that our govern- 
ment ought to inaugurate a new policy in this matter 
and build in the chief capitals of foreign nations on 
land convenient to the foreign offices buildings suit- 
able in every way for the residences and offices of our 
diplomatic representatives. Such buildings constructed 
according to a characteristic American style of archi- 
tecture and furnished like an American home would 
not only give to our representative a fixed habitation, 
but would exhibit to the people of the country to 
which he is accredited the American manner of living 
The records of the embassy could be kept more safely 
in permanent quarters. 

As real estate in all the capitals of Europe is rapidly 
rising in value, land purchased now would become a 
profitable investment and the rent estimated upon the 
purchase price would be a great deal less than will 
have to be paid twenty or fifty years from now for a 
suitable site and buildings conveniently located. It is 
not wise to confine our diplomatic representation to the 
circle of the wealthy, and it is much better to furnish 
our ambassadors and ministers with residences than 
to increase their salaries. 



THREE LITTLE KINGDOMS. 

I shall treat in this article of my visit to three little 
kingdoms in the north of Europe — Denmark, Belgium 
and The Netherlands. 

/ I passed through the edge of Sweden on my way 
from Berlin to Copenhagen and was at Malmoe a 
short time; but, as it was Christmas day and early in 
the morning, few stores were open, and I did not have 
an opportunity to see many people. I had intended to 
visit Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, but a day's 
delay in Russia deprived me of that pleasure. 

Copenhagen is not only the capital of Denmark, but 
its commercial metropolis as well. The city has the 
air of a seaport. The canal leading from the harbor 
up to the center of the town was crowded with boats 
which had taken up their winter quarters and the 
multitude of masts told of the numbers of those who 
live upon the ocean. 

Denmark is a densely populated country composed 
of the Jutland peninsula and a number of islands. The 
land is for the most part level and not much above the 
sea, but the farmers of Denmark have distinguished 
themselves in several departments of agriculture, 
especially in butter-making — Danish butter command- 
ing the highest price in London and other large mar- 
kets. 



58 



THREE LITTLE KINGDOMS. 59 

Copenhagen has sortie very substantial buildings 
and an art gallery in which the works of Thorwaldsen, 
the sculptor, occupy the chief place. 

The people of Denmark, while living under an 
heriditary monarch, have a written constitution, and 
parliament is the controlling influence in the govern- 
ment. Until recently, the sovereign insisted upon se- 
lecting his cabinet ministers to suit himself ; but, about 
three years ago, he yielded to the demand of parlia- 
ment that the dominant party in that body be per- 
mitted to furnish the king's advisers. The change 
has proven so satisfactory that perfect harmony now 
exists between the royal family and the legislative 
body. 

King Christian is advanced in years and is so be- 
loved by his people that he goes among them without 
attendants or guards. 

The heir to the throne of Denmark, Prince Freder- 
ick upon whom, by the courtesy of the American min- 
ister, Mr. Swensen, I was able to call on Christma? 
afternoon, is very democratic in his manner, and very 
cordial in his friendship for America. 

If marrying her daughters to crowned heads is a 
test, the late Queen of Sweden was a very successful 
mother. One of her daughters is mother of the pres- 
ent emperor of Russia, another is wife of the present 
king of England, and a third is married to one of the 
smaller kings of Germany. A son, it may be added, 
is king of Greece. 

I had the pleasure of meeting the prime minister 
and also Professor Matzen, the president of the state 
universitv and Denmark's member of The Hague tri- 



60 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

bunal. He was one of the leading opponents of the 
transfer of the Danish islands to the United States. 

I learned while in Denmark that one of the chief 
reasons for the opposition to the sale of the Danish 
islands to the United States was the fact that the 
United States did not guarantee full citizenship to the 
inhabitants of those islands. The nation's conduct 
elsewhere prevented this. Our refusal to give the 
Porto Ricans, and the Philippines the protection of 
the constitution, is largely to blame for the loss of the 
Danish islands to our country. 

The Danish officials whom I met were deeply in- 
terested in the United States, and naturally so, for, 
like Sweden and Norway, Denmark has sent many 
sons and daughters to the United States ; and these, as 
have the Swedes and Norwegians, have deported 
themselves so well as to establish close ties between 
the mother countries and their adopted land. 



BELGIUM. 

Belgium is a busy hive. Its people are crowded to- 
gether and are very industrious. The farmers and 
truck gardeners have reduced agriculture to a fine art 
and the lace workers are famous for their skill. 

Nowhere did I see man's faithful friend, the dog, 
utilized as in Belgium. He helps to haul the carts 
along the streets, and his services are so highly prized 
that large dogs are untaxed, while the small house dog, 
being an idler, has to contribute his annual quota to 
the expenses of the government. 

The elegance of some of the public buildings and 
the beauty of the streets of Brussels surprise one if 
he has allowed himself to judge Belgium by her di- 
mensions on the map. Historical interest, however, 
is centered, not in Brussels, but in the battlefield of 
Waterloo, some miles away. In the summer time, 
thousands of tourists (among whom according to the 
guides are but few Frenchmen) turn their steps to- 
ward this field which witnessed the overthrow of the 
greatest military genius of his generation, if not of all 
time. 

The scene of carnage is now marked by an enorm- 
ous artificial mound 130 feet in height and surmounted 
by an immense stone lion — the Lion of Waterloo. The 
animal looks toward the point from which Napoleon 
made his last charge and seems to be watching lest 
the attack may be renewed. Wellington upon visiting 

61 



62 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

the battlefield after the erection of this mound, is said 
to have complained that they had ruined the battle- 
field to secure dirt for this stupedous pile; and it is 
true that the surface of the earth in that vicinity has 
been very much altered. In leveling the knolls they 
have destroyed one of the most interesting land-marks 
of the battlefield — the sunken road in which so many 
of the French soldiers lost their lives. As the guide 
tells it, Napoleon asked a Belgian peasant if there was 
any ravine to be crossed between him and the enemy's 
lines, and the peasant replied in the negative ; but 
when the French rushed over this knoll, they came 
suddenly and unexpectedly upon a narrow road in a 
cut about twenty feet deep, and, falling in, filled up the 
cut until succeeding ranks crossed over on their dead 
bodies. 

The field as a whole might be described as a roll- 
ing prairie although the visitor is told of groves no 
longer standing. At the Hugomond farm, the walls 
of the house bear evidence of the conflict that raged 
nearly a century ago, and one is shown the ruins of an 
old well in which, it is said, the bodies of 300 English 
soldiers were buried. This portion of the battlefield 
reminds one somewhat of that portion of the battle- 
field of Gettysburg which was made famous by Pick- 
ett's charge, although there are but few monuments at 
Waterloo to mark the places occupied by the various 
brigades and divisions. 

At a restaurant near the mound one is shown the 
chair in which, according to tradition, Wellington sat 
when he was laying his plans for the last day's bat- 



THREE LITTLE KINGDOMS. 63 

tie, and you can, for a franc each, secure bullets war- 
ranted to have been found upon the field. It is rum- 
ored, however, that some of the bullets now found are 
of modern make and that thrifty peasants sow them as 
they do grain, and gather them for the benefit of 
tourists. 

I found Europe agitated by a remark recently 
made by the emperor of Germany which gave the 
Prussian troops credit for saving the English and win- 
ning the day, but the French are as quick to dispute 
this claim as the English. The comedians have taken 
the matter up in the British Isles and, at one London 
theatre, an actor dressed as an Englishman, is made 
to meet a German and, after an exchange of compli- 
ments, the Englishman brings down the house by 
saying: "I beg pardon! It may be a little late, but let 
me thank you for saving us at Waterloo." 

It is hardly worth while for the allies to quarrel 
over the division of credit. There was glory enough 
for all— and it required the co-operation of all to over- 
come the genius and the strategy of Bonaparte. 



THE NETHERLANDS. 

Between Waterloo, one of the world's most re- 
nowned battle-fields, and The Hague, which is to be 
the home of the Temple of Peace — what a contrast; 
and yet Belgium and The Netherlands lie side by 
side ! Perhaps the contrast is chronological rather 
than geographical or racial, for the Dutch have had 
their share of fighting on their own soil, as they had 
their part in the victory of 1815. It seems especially 
appropriate that The Hague should be chosen as the 
permanent meeting place of the peace tribunal, for it 
is not only centrally located for European countries, 
and, being small, is not itself tempted to appeal to 
arms, but it has long been the home of religious lib- 
erty, and its people were pioneers in the defense of the 
doctrine that rulers exist for the people, not the peo- 
ple for the rulers. 

The capital of The Netherlands — The Hague— 
(the name is taken from the forest that adjoins) is a 
beautiful little city and will furnish an appropriate 
setting for the building which Mr. Carnegie's gener- 
osity is to provide. Plans are already being prepared 
for this structure, and one of the officials showed me 
a picture representing Peace which may be repro- 
duced upon the ceiling or walls. 

In the gallery at Moscow I saw a painting by the 
great Russian artist, Verechiagin. It is a pyramid of 

64 



THREE LITTLE KINGDOMS. 65 

whitened skulls standing out against a dark back- 
ground, and is dedicated to "The Warriors of the 
World." It tells the whole story of war in so solemn, 
impressive, and terrible a way that Von Moltke is 
said to have issued an order prohibiting German offi- 
cers from looking at it when it was exhibited at Berlin. 
The emperor of Russia, who has the distinction 
and the honor of having called together the conference 
which resulted in The Hague tribunal, might with 
great propriety contribute to the Temple of Peace this 
masterpiece of one of his countrymen, portraying so 
vividly the evils which arbitration is intended to 
remedy. 

One of the members of the arbitration court told 
me that it was both interesting and instructive to note 
how the nations appearing before that court empha- 
sized, not so much their pecuniary claims, as the hon- 
or of their respective nations and the justice of their 
acts. 

No one can foresee or foretell how great an influ- 
ence The Hague tribunal will have upon the world's 
affairs, but it would seem difficult to exaggerate it. It 
is cultivating a public opinion which will in time 
coerce the nations into substituting arbitration for vio- 
lence in the settlement of international disputes ; and 
it ought to be a matter of gratification to every Amer- 
ican that our country is taking so active a part in the 
forwarding of the movement. 

P.ut The Hague is not the only place of interest 
in The Netherlands. The land replevined from the 
sea by the sturdy Dutch and protected by dykes, the 



66 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

spot immortalized by the temporary sojourn of the 
Pilgrims, the familiar blue china, the huge wind mills 
with their deliberate movements, the wooden shoes, 
and the numerous waterways — all these attract the at- 
tention of the tourist. 

And the commercial metropolis of Holland, Am- 
sterdam—what a quaint old city it is ! Its more than 
300 canals roaming their way through the city, and 
its hundreds of bridges, have given to it the name 
of "The Northern Venice," and it well deserves the ap- 
pellation. The houses are built on piles, and as many 
of them are settling, they lean in every direction, some 
out toward the street, some back, and some toward the 
side. The houses are so dependent upon each other 
for their support that it is a common saying in that 
city that if you want to injure your neighbor, you have 
only to pull down your own house. 

Amsterdam is the center of the diamond cutting 
industry of the world, more than 10,000 hands being 
employed in that work. As is well known, the Dutch 
are a rich people, and their commerce, like their mort- 
gages, can be found everywhere. 

They have a constitutional monarchy, but they 
have universal education and parliamentary govern- 
ment, and are jealous of their political rights. 

Denmark, Belgium and The Netherlands—three 
little kingdoms! Small in area, but brimful of people, 
and these people have their part in the solving of 
problems with which Europe is now grappling. 



GERMANY AND SOCIALISM. 

At Berlin I found, as I had at London and Paris, a 
considerable number of Americans and, as in the other 
cities, they have organized a society, the object of 
which is to bring the American residents together for 
friendly intercourse. At London the group is known 
as the American Society; at Paris and Berlin the so- 
ciety is known as the American Chamber of Com- 
merce. Through the receptions given by these socie- 
ties I was able to meet not only the leading American 
residents, but many foreigners who came as invited 
guests. Our American residents are evidently con- 
ducting themselves well because I found that they 
are well liked by the people among whom they are 
temporarily sojourning. I am indebted to Ambassa- 
dor Tower and to the American Chamber of Com- 
merce for courtesies extended me at Berlin. 

My visit to Germany occurred at Christmas time 
and while it was for that reason impossible to see 
the kaiser (much to my regret), I learned something 
of the German method of observing the great Chris- 
tian holiday. The German is essentially a domestic 
man and at Christmas time especially gives himself up 
to the society of the family, relatives and friends. 
Christmas coming on Friday, the festivities covered 
three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The 
toys — in which Germany abounds — were of endless 
variety, and the Christmas trees bending beneath their 

67 



68 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

load were centers of interest to the young folks. There 
were dolls and dogs, horses and woolley sheep, cows 
that give milk, and soldiers — an abundance of soldiers. 
I saw one cavalryman with a saber in his hand. When 
he was wound up the horse would rush forward and 
the rider would strike out with his saber as if he was 
keeping watch on the Rhine and in the very act of 
resisting an attack from the enemy. A little strange 
that the birthday of the Prince of Peace should be 
celebrated by the presentation of toys illustrating 
mimic warfare ! But as in America we are increasing 
our army and enlarging our navy we are not in a very 
good position to take the military mote out of the 
eye of our friends in the fatherland. 

Berlin is a splendid city with beautiful streets, 
parks and public buildings.. It is more modern in 
appearance than either London or Paris and there is 
a solidity and substantialness about the population 
that explains the character of the emigration from 
Germany to America. No one can look upon a gath- 
ering of average Germans without recognizing that 
he is in the presence of a strong, intelligent and mas- 
terful people. Bismarck has left his impress upon Ger- 
many as Napoleon did upon France. An heroic statue 
of the man of "blood and iron" stands between the 
reichstag and the column of Victory, which was erect- 
ed at the close of the Franco-Prussian war. The 
reichstag is a massive, but graceful structure, built 
some twenty years ago. In one of the corridors I no- 
ticed a silk flag which was presented in the seventies 
by the German women of America. The reichstag 



GERMANY. 69 

proper is a popular body, much like the English par- 
liament, and, as in England, the members do not nec- 
essarily reside in the districts they represent. The up- 
per house, or bundesrath, is somewhat like our senate 
in one respect, namely, that it represents the various 
states that comprise the German empire, but it differs 
from our senate, first, in that the subdivisions are rep- 
resented somewhat in proportion to population, and, 
second, in that the members of the bundesrath are 
really ambassadors of the several state governments 
whose credentials can be withdrawn at any time. As 
all legislation must be concurred in by the bundesrath 
as well as by the reichstag it will be seen that the 
German government is not nearly so responsive to the 
will of the people as the governments of England, 
Denmark and the Netherlands. 

In the reichstag they have resorted to a device 
for saving time in roll call. Each member is supplied 
with a quantity of tickets, some pink and some white. 
Each ticket bears on both sides the name of the mem- 
ber. On the white tickets the word "Ja" (yes) ap- 
pears under the name, on the pink ones "Nein" (no). 
These ballots are gathered up in vases containing two 
receptacles, one white and the other pink. The vases 
are carried through the hall and the votes deposited 
according to color. As they are deposited in the 
different receptacles and are distinguished by color 
the ballot is quickly taken and counted — in about one- 
fourth the time, I think, formerly required for roll 
call. This is a method which our congress might find 
it convenient to adopt. 



70 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

It was my good fortune, while in Berlin, to meet 
Dr. Otto Arendt, the leading bimetallist of Germany, 
He became a student of the money question while in 
college, being converted to the double standard by the 
writings of Cernucshi, the great French economist. 
Dr. Arendt is a member of the reichstag, from one of 
the agricultural constituencies. He has represented his 
government in international conferences and has urged 
his government to join in an agreement to restore bi- 
metallism, but like other advocates of the double stan- 
dard has found the English financiers an immovable 
obstruction in the way. 

I have for two reasons reserved for this article 
some comments on the growth of socialism in Europe. 
First, because Germany was to be the last of the 
larger countries visited, and, second, because socialism 
seems to be growing more rapidly in Germany than 
anywhere else. I find that nearly all of the European 
nations have carried collective ownership farther than 
we have in the United States. In a former article 
reference has already been made to the growth of 
municipal ownership in England and Scotland, and I 
may add that where the private ownership of public 
utilities is still permitted the regulation of the corpor- 
ations holding these franchises is generally more strict 
than in the United States. Let two illustrations suf- 
fice : Where parliament charters gas and water com- 
panies in cities it has for some years been the practice 
to limit the dividends that can be earned— any surplus 
earnings over and above the dividends allowed must 
be used in reducing the price paid by the consumer. I 



GERMANY. 71 

fear that our money magnates would be at a loss to 
find words to express their indignation if any such 
restriction was suggested in America, and yet is it 
not a just and reasonable restriction? 

In the case of railroads, I noticed that there are 
in England but few grade (or, as they call them, 
"level") crossings. I am informed that railroad acci- 
dents and injuries are not so frequent in England as 
in the United States. 

In Switzerland the government has recently ac- 
quired the principal railroad systems. In Holland, 
Belgium and Denmark also the railroads are largely 
government roads. In Russia the government owns 
and operates the roads and I found there a new form 
of collectivism, namely, the employment of a commun- 
ity physician who treats the people without charge. 
These physicians are employed by societies called 
Zemstro which have control of the roads and the care 
of the sick. 

In Germany, however, socialism as an economic 
theory is being urged by a strong and growing party. 
In the last general election the socialists polled a lit- 
tle more than three million votes out of a total of 
about nine and a half millions. Measured by the popu- 
lar vote it is now the strongest party in Germany. The 
fact that with thirty-one per cent of the vote it only 
has eighty-one members of the reichstag out of a to- 
tal of 397 is due, in part, to the fact that the social- 
ist vote is massed in the cities and in part to the fact 
that the population has increased more rapidly in the 



72 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

cities and as there has been no recent redisricting the 
socialist city districts are larger than the districts re- 
turning members of other parties. 

George von Vollmar, a member of the reichstag, 
in a recent issue of the National Review thus states 
the general purpose of the social democratic party 
in Germany: 

"It is well known that social democracy in all 
countries, as its name indicates, aims in the first place 
at social and economic reform. It starts from the 
point of view that economic development, the substitu- 
tion of machinery for hand implements, and the sup- 
planting of small factories by gigantic industrial com- 
binations, deprive the worker in an ever-increasing de- 
gree of the essential means of production, thereby con- 
verting him into a possessionless proletarian, and that 
the means of production are becoming the exclusive 
possession of a comparatively small number of capital- 
ists, who constantly monopolize all the advantages 
which the gigantic increase in the productive capacity 
of human effort has brought about. Thus, according to 
the social democrats, capital is master of all the 
springs of life, and lays a yoke on the working classes 
in particular, and the whole population in general, 
which ever becomes more and more unbearable. The 
masses, as their insight into the general trend of af- 
fairs develops, become daily more and more conscious 
of the contrast between the exploiter and the exploit- 
ed, and in all countries with an industrial development 
society is divided into two hostile camps, which wage 
war on each other with ever increasing bitterness. 



GERMANY. 73. 

"To this class-war is due the origin and continu- 
ous development of social democracy, the chief task 
of which is to unite these factions in an harmonious 
whole which they will direct to its true goal. Indus- 
trial combination on a large scale can be converted 
from a source of misery and oppression into a source 
of the greatest prosperity and of harmonious perfec- 
tion when the means of production cease to be the ex- 
clusive appanage of capital and are transferred to the 
hands of society at large. The social revolution here 
indicated implies the liberation not only of the pro- 
letariat, but of mankind as a whole, which suffers from 
the decomposing influence of existing class antagon- 
ism whereby all social progress is crippled." 

One of the most influential of the German social- 
ists in answer to a series of questions submitted by 
me said in substance : 

First, the general aim of socialists in Germany is 
the same as the aim of other socialists throughout the 
world — namely, the establishment of a collective 
commonwealth based on democratic equality. 

Second, the socialists of Germany have organized 
a liberal party of unrivalled strength ; they have edu- 
cated the working classes to a very high standard of 
political intelligence and to a strong sense of their in- 
dependence and of their social mission, as the living 
and progressive force in every social respect ; they 
have promoted the organization of trade unions ; and 
have by their incessant agitation compelled the other 
parties and the government to take up social and labor 
legislation. 



74 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Third, German socialists at present are contend- 
ing for a legal eight-hour day and for the creation of 
a labor department in the government, with labor offi- 
cers and labor chambers throughout the country. In 
■ addition to these special reforms socialists are urging 
various constitutional and democratic reforms in the 
states and municipalities— in the latter housing re- 
forms, direct employment of labor, etc. 

Fourth, there may be some difference of opinion 
among socialists in regard to the competitive system, 
but being scientific evolutionists they all agree that 
competition was at one time a great step in advance 
and acted for generations as a social lever of industrial 
progress, but they believe that it has many evil con- 
sequences and that it is now being outgrown by capi- 
talistic concerns, whose power to oppress has become 
a real danger to the community. They contend that 
there is not much competition left with these mono- 
polies and that, as on the other hand, education and 
the sense of civic responsibility are visibly growing, 
and will grow more rapidly when socialism gets hold 
of the public mind, socialists think that the time is 
approaching when all monopolies must and can safely 
be taken over by the state or municipality as the case 
may be. This would not destroy all competition at 
once— in industries not centralized some competition 
might continue to exist. In this respect also all soc- 
ialists are evolutionists, however they may differ as to 
ways and means and political methods. 

Fifth, as to the line between what are called nat- 
ural monopolies and ordinary industries, the question 



GERMANY. 75 

is partly answered by the preceeding paragraph. There 
is a general consensus of opinion that natural monop- 
olies should, in any case, be owned by the community. 

I find that even in Germany there are degrees 
among socialists— some like Babel and Singer empha- 
sizing the ultimate ends of socialism, while others led 
by Bernstein are what might be called progressionists 
or opportunists — that is, they are willing to take the 
best they can get today and from that vantage ground 
press on to something better. It is certain that the 
socialists of Germany are securing reforms, but so far 
they are reforms which have either already been se- 
cured in other countries or are advocated elsewhere 
by other parties as well as by the socialist party. 

The whole question of socialism hangs upon the 
question : Is competition an evil or a good ? If it is an 
evil then monopolies are right and we have only to 
decide whether the monopolies should be owned by 
the state or by private individuals. If, on the other 
hand, competition is a good then it should be restored 
where it can be restored. In the case of natural mon- 
opolies where it is impossible for competition to exist, 
the government would administer the monopolies not 
on the ground that competition is undesirable, but on 
the ground that in such cases it is impossible. 

Those who believe that the right is sure of ulti- 
mate triumph will watch the struggle in Germany and 
profit by the lessons taught. I am inclined to be- 
lieve that political considerations are so mingled with 
economic theories that it is difficult as yet to know 
just what proportion of the three million socialist vot- 



76 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

ers believe in "the government ownership and opera- 
tion of all the means of production and distribution." 
The old age pension act was given as a sop to the 
socialists, but it strengthened rather than weakened 
their contentions and their party. It remains to be 
seen whether the new concessions which they seem 
likely to secure will still further augment their 
strength. The Germans are a studious and a thought- 
ful people and just now they are absorbed in the con- 
sideration of the aims and methods of the socialist 
movement (mingled with a greater or less amount of 
governmental reform), and the world awaits their ver- 
dict with deep interest. 



Russia and Her Czar. 

The map of Russia makes the other nations of 
Europe look insignificant by comparison. Moscow is 
called "The Heart of Russia," and yet the trans-Siber- 
ian railway from Moscow to Vladivostok is about 
6,000 miles long, nearly one-fourth the circumference 
of the globe. From St. Petersburg to Sebastopol is 
more than 2,000 miles, and yet Russia's territory ex- 
tends much further north than St. Petersburg and 
much further south than Sebastopol. In a book 
recently issued by authority of the Russian govern^ 
ment some comparisons are made that give an idea 
of the immensity of Russia's domain. For instance, 
Siberia is about one and one-half times as large as 
Europe, 25 times as large as Germany, and covers 
one-thirteenth of the continental surface of the globe. 
Besides having great timber belts and vast prairies, 
Siberia has a hill and lake region ten times as large 
as Switzerland, and it is claimed that some of the 
lakes are as beautiful as those of "The Mountain Re- 
public." Lately the government has been encourag- 
ing immigration into the country opened up by the 
trans-Siberian railway and the success of the move- 
ment is shown by the fact that the number of pas- 
sengers carried on the western section of the road 
increased from 160,000 in 1896 to 379,000 in 1898, and 
on the middle section from 177,000 in 1897 to 476,000 
in 1898, with a similar increase in freight traffic. The 

77 



78 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

government gives a certain area of land to each set- 
tler and when necessary advances sufficient money to 
build homes and barns for the storage of crops and for 
the purchase of agricultural implements. The terri- 
torial greatness of Russia is the first thing that im- 
presses the tourist, and the second is that it is as yet 
so sparsely settled that it can without fear of crowd- 
ing accommodate a vast increase in population. 

Russia embraces all varieties of climate and 
resources. 

My journey was confined to the northeast portion. 
I entered the country below Warsaw, went west to 
Moscow, then north to St. Petersburg and thence 
southeast to Berlin. This, with the exception of my 
visit to Tula, gave me my only opportunity to see the 
people of Russia. They impressed me as being a 
hardy race and the necessities of climate are such as 
to compel industry and activity. I never saw else- 
where such universal preparation for cold weather. As 
yet Russia is almost entirely agricultural, but manu- 
facturing enterprises are continually increasing. The 
peasants live in villages and for the most part hold 
their lands in common — that is, the lands belong to 
the commune or village as a whole and not to the 
individual. When Alexander freed the serfs the land 
was sold to them jointly on long-time payments. These 
payments have in only a few instances been complet- 
ed, wherefore not many of the peasants own land in- 
dividually. There is just now much discussion in Rus- 
sia about the method of holding land. Some contend 



RUSSIA. 79 

that communal holding tends to discourage thrift and 
enterprise, and there is some agitation in favor of in- 
dividual ownership. 

Moscow, the largest city of Russia, has a trifle 
larger population than St. Petersburg, the capital, 
which has more than a million. Moscow, which is 
the commercial center of the empire, gives the cas- 
ual visitor a much better idea of the characteristic life 
and architecture of Russia than does St. Petersburg. 
St. Petersburg, however, is laid out upon a broader, 
more generous plan, has wider streets, more impres- 
sive public buildings and private residences, and there 
is more evidence of wealth in the capital than in the 
commercial center. Both cities possess admirable 
museums and art galleries. The chief gallery of Mos- 
cow devotes nearly all its wall space to pictures by 
Russian artists, and they are sufficient in number to 
prove Russia's claim to an honorable place in the 
world of art. 

The Hermitage at St. Petersburg, which is an 
annex of the emperor's palace, contains an extraordin- 
ary number of masterpieces of modern and ancient 
art. The museum of the academy of sciences pos- 
sesses a remarkable collection of fine specimens of pre- 
historic animals, among them mammoths, the largest 
and best preserved of which was found only a few 
years ago at the foot of a Siberian glacier. 

The visitor to Russia comes away with conflict- 
ing emotions. He is impressed by the wonderful 
possibilities of the country, but is oppressed by the 
limitations and restrictions which the srovernment 



80 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

places upon individual action and activity. As soon 
as the traveler reaches the border of Russia his pass- 
port is demanded. It is again demanded the moment 
he arrives at his hotel, and it is demanded and inspect- 
ed at every place he stops. When he is about to 
leave the country he must send his passport to the 
police office and have it indorsed with official permis- 
sion to depart. Not only is a passport demanded at 
every place from the foreigner, but native Russians, 
high and low, must also bear passports and be pre- 
pared to submit them for inspection upon demand. Not 
even officers of the army are exempt from this rigid 
rule. 

The censorship over the press and over private 
mail is very strict. I brought away with me a copy 
of Stead's Review of Reviews which had been posted 
to a subscriber in Russia and which had passed 
through the hands of the censor. Its pages bore 
abundant evidence of the care with which he scrutin- 
ized foreign publications, for objectionable cartoons, 
articles and even paragraphs had been made illegible 
by an obliterating stamp. 

The government of Russia, as the world knows, is 
an autocracy. All power is vested in the emperor, 
and all authority emanates from him. Being an auto- 
cracy, Russia has, of course, no legislative body, such 
as is now a part of the government of nearly every 
civilized country on the globe. It has not trial by 
jury and it knows not the writ of habeas corpus. The 
custom of exiling or banishing without trial persons 
obectionable to the government is still practiced. A 



RUSSIA. 81 

large number of Finns, many of them persons of prom- 
inence, have been deported from Finnland since the 
decree of 1899, which limited the self-governmnet 
which the Finns had enjoyed since Russia annexed 
their country. 

While in St. Petersburg I was, by the courtesy 
of the American ambassador, Mr. McCormick, given 
an opportunity of meeting and chatting with the czar 
of all the Russias, Emperor Nicholas II. I found him 
at his winter residence, the palace of Tzarskoje Selo, 
which is about an hour's ride from St. Petersburg. 

Of all the emperor's palaces, Tzarskoje Selo is his 
favorite. It stands in a magnificent park which at 
this time of year is covered with snow. The emperor 
is a young man, having been born in 1868. He is not 
more than five feet seven or eight inches in height 
and apparently weighs about 160 pounds. His figure is 
slender and erect, his face boyish and his eyes a light 
blue. His hair, which is blonde, is cut rather short 
and combed upward over the forehead. The czar 
wears a mustache and short beard. The general 
expression of his face is gentle rather than severe and 
he speaks English perfectly. He informed me that 
about 65 per cent of the adult men of Russia can read 
and write and that the number is increasing at the 
rate of about 3 per cent a year. This increase, the 
czar said, was shown by the recruits to the army, and 
as these come from all provinces of the empire and all 
classes of society, he believes it to be a fair test of 
the people as a whole. The czar declared himself 
deeply interested in the spread of education among 



82 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

the people and seemed to realize that opportunities for 
education should be extended to men and women 
equally. I referred to a decree issued by him about 
a year ago promising a measure of self-government 
to the local communities. The czar said: "Yes, that 
was issued last February, and the plan is now being 
worked out." He manifested great gratification at 
the outcome of the proposals submitted by him which 
resulted in the establishment of The Hague court of 
arbitration and it is a movement of which he may 
justly feel proud, for while it is not probable that The 
Hague tribunal will at once end all wars, it is certain 
to contribute largely to the growth of a sentiment that 
will substitute the reign of reason for the rule of 
brute force. The czar spoke warmly of the friendly 
relations that had existed for years between Russia 
and the United States. He said that the people of his 
country had rejoiced in the growth and greatness of 
the United States. Then, speaking with considerable 
feeling, the czar said : "The attitude of Russia in the 
Kischineff affair has been very much misrepresented 
by some of the newspapers and I wish you would tell 
your people so when you return to the United States." 

The Russian officials deny that the government 
was in any way responsible for the massacre and I 
was informed that the government had caused the 
prosecution and secured the imprisonment of many of 
those implicated. The emperor showed in his con- 
versation that he respected public opinion in the Unit- 
ed States and was anxious that his administration 
should not fest under condemnation. It seems to be 



RUSSIA. 83 

the general opinion of those with whom I had a chance 
to speak in Russia that the emperor himself is much 
more progressive and liberal than his official environ- 
ment. If he were free to act upon his own judgment, 
it is believed that he would go further and faster than 
the officeholding class surrounding him in broadening 
the foundations of government, and from his words 
and manner during my conversation with him I am 
inclined to share this opinion. 

What Russia most needs today are free speech 
and a free press — free speech that those who have the 
welfare of the country at heart may give expression 
to their views and contribute their wisdom to that 
public opinion which in all free countries controls to 
a greater or less extent those who hold office. To 
deny freedom of speech is to question the ability of 
truth to combat error; it is to doubt the power of 
right to vindicate itself. A free press would not 
only enable those in office to see their actions as oth- 
ers see them, but would exercise a wholesome re- 
straint. Publicity will often deter an official from 
wrong-doing when other restraints would be insuf- 
ficient, and those who are anxious to do well ought 
to welcome anything that would throw light upon 
their path. With free speech and a free press it 
would not be long before the participation of the Rus- 
sian people in government would be enlarged, and 
with that enlarged share in the control of their own 
affairs would come not only contentment, but the 
education which responsibility and self-government 
bring. It is impossible to prepare people for self- 



84 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

government by depriving them of the exercise of po- 
litical rights. As children learn to walk by being 
allowed to fall and rise and fall and rise again, so peo- 
ple profit by experience and learn from the conse- 
quences of their mistakes. 

That the Russian people are devoted to their 
church is evident everywhere. Every village and 
town has its churches, and the cities have cathedrals, 
chapels and shrines seemingly innumerable. St. 
Isaac's cathedral in St. Petersburg is an immense bas- 
ilica and is ornamented in nave and transcept with 
precious and semi-precious stones. The superb por- 
tico is supported by a maze of granite monoliths seven 
feet in diameter. There is now in process of construc- 
tion at Moscow a still more elaborate cathedral. Rus- 
sia is not a good missionary field for two reasons : 
First, because the people seem wedded to their church, 
and, second, because no one is permitted to sever his 
connection with the church. 

The child of an orthodox Russian becomes a mem- 
ber of the church of his parents and if he desires to 
enter another church he must leave the country. If 
one of the orthodox church marries a member of an- 
other church the children must of necessity be reared 
in the Russian faith. It will be seen, therefore, that 
the church is very closely connected with the govern- 
ment itself, and quite as arbitrary. 

De Tocqueville some fifty years ago predicted a 
large place for Russia among the nations of Europe 
and my visit to the great empire of the northeast con- 
vinced me that Russia with universal education, free- 



RUSSIA. 85 

dom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of reli- 
gion and constitutional self-government would exert 
an influence upon the destinies of the old world to 
which it would be difficult to set a limit. 



Rome — The Catholic Capital. 

The dominant feature of Rome is the religious 
feature, and it is fitting that it should be so, for here 
the soil was stained with the blood of those who first 
harkened to the voice of the Nazarene—here a cruel 
Nero lighted his garden with human torches, little 
thinking that the religion of those whom he burned 
would in time illumine the earth. 

The fact that the city is the capital of the Catho- 
lic world is apparent everywhere. All interest is 
centered in the Vatican and St. Peter's. The civil 
government of Italy extends to the nation's borders, 
but the papal authority of Rome reaches to the re- 
motest corners of the earth. I was anxious to see 
the man upon whom such vast responsibility rests, and 
whose words so profoundly influence millions of the 
human race. Lord Denbigh, of England, had given 
me a letter of introduction to Cardinal Merry del Val, 
the papal secretary of state, and armed with this I 
visited the Vatican. Cardinal del Val is an exceed- 
ingly interesting man. He was born of Spanish par- 
ents, but one of his grand-parents was English, and 
he is connected by ties of blood with several families 
of the English nobility. He was educated in England, 
and speaks that language fluently and without an ac- 
cent, as he does French, German, Italian and Span- 
ish. His linguistic accomplishments are almost as 
great as those of the famous Cardinal Mezzofanti. 



THE CATHOLIC CAPITAL. 87 

Cardinal del Val is an unusually young man to occupy 
such an important post — he is not yet forty. He im- 
presses one as a man of rare ability and he possesses 
extraordinary versatility and a diplomatic training 
that will make him eminently useful to His Holiness. 
The papal secretary of state is a tall, slender, distin- 
guished-looking man. His intellectual face is thin and 
oval ; his eyes are large, dark and brilliant, showing 
his Spanish birth. He received us in his private 
apartments in the Vatican. They are among the most 
interesting of the 1,200 rooms in that great building 
and were once occupied by that famous pope who was 
a Borgia. The ceilings and walls down to the floor 
are painted magnificently, the decoration having been 
done by the hand of a master artist of Borgia's reign. 
For centuries the suit now occupied by Cardinal del 
Val had been part of the Vatican library. The beautiful 
walls were once hidden by a coat of rude whitewash, 
but the paintings were discovered not long ago and 
the pictures restored once more to view. 

Before visiting the Vatican I called upon Monsig- 
nor Kennedy, the rector of the American college. Mgr. 
Kennedy is a learned and an exceedingly agreeable 
American and under his efficient management the 
number of students in the college has been doubled 
within a few years. He enabled me to meet Pope 
Pius' Maestro di Camera. By the good offices of Car- 
dinal del Val, and the Maestro di Camera it was ar- 
ranged that I should have a private audience with the 
Holy Father the following day, Mgr. Kennedy acting 
as interpreter. 



88 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

is 

Pope Pius received - us in his private audience 
room adjoining the public audience chamber, where 
distinguished Catholics from all over the world were 
collected and ready to be presented and receive the. 
papal blessing. The private audience room is a rather 
small apartment, simply, but beautifully furnished and 
decorated. A throne bearing the papal crown occu- 
pied one side of the room. His Holiness greeted us 
very courteously and cordially. He wore a long 
white cassock, with a girdle at the waist ; the fisher- 
man's ring was on his finger and he wore a small, 
closely fitting skull-cap of white. I had an opportun- 
ity to study his face. It is a round, strong face, full 
of kindliness and benevolence, but there are not lack- 
ing indications that its possessor has a purpose and 
will of his own. The face is ruddy and the nose rath- 
er long — it is straight and not arched. His eyes are 
large, blue and friendly. The scant hair visible below 
the skull-cap is white. In stature the Holy Father is 
about five feet nine or ten inches and his figure is 
sturdy, but not too heavy. His step is light and gives 
an impression of strength and good health. 

His Holiness has already gained a reputation as 
a democratic pontiff and enjoys a large and growing 
popularity with the people. He is an orator and often 
on Sunday goes into one of the many court yards of 
the Vatican and preaches to the crowds that gather 
quite informally. His gestures are said to be grace- 
ful and his voice melodious. His manner is earnest 
and his thoughts are expressed in a clear and emphatic 
language. There is a feeling in Rome that Pius X. is 



THE CATHOLIC CAPITAL. 89 

going to be known in history as a reformer — not as a 
reformer of doctrine, but as one who will popularize 
the church's doctrine with a view to increasing the 
heartiness and zeal of the masses in the application of 
religious truth to everyday life. 

I assured his Holiness that I appreciated the op- 
portunity that was his to give impetus to the moral 
forces of the world, and he replied : "I hope my efforts 
in that direction will be such as to merit commenda- 
tion." Answering my statement that I called to pre- 
sent the good will of many Catholic friends as well 
as to pay my respects, His Holiness asked me to car- 
ry his benediction back to them. 

If I may venture an opinion upon such brief ob- 
servation, it is that heart characteristics will dominate 
the present pontiff's course. He is not so renowned 
a scholar and diplomat as was his predecessor, nor is 
he so skilled in statecraft, but he is a virile, energetic, 
pratical religious teacher, charitable, abounding in 
good works and full of brotherly love. I am confident 
that he will play an important part in the world-wide 
conflict between man and mammon. 

The world has made and is making great progress 
in education and in industry. The percentage of illit- 
eracy is everywhere steadily decreasing.The standards 
of art and taste are rising and the forces of nature are 
being harnessed to do the work of man. Steam, mad- 
ly escaping from its prison walls, turns myrid wheels 
and drags our commerce over land and sea, while 
electricity, more fleet of foot than Mercury, has be- 
come the message-bearer of millions. Even the waves 



90 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

of the air are now obedient to the command of man 
and intelligence is flashed across the ocean without the 
aid of wires. With this dominion over nature man has 
been able to advance his physical well-being as well 
as to enlarge his mental horizon, but has the moral 
development of the people kept pace with material 
prosperity? The growing antagonism between capital 
and labor, the lack of sympathy often manifest be- 
tween those of the same race and even of the same 
religion when enjoying incomes quite unequal — these 
things would seem to indicate that the heart has lagged 
behind the head and the purse. The restoration of the 
equilibrium and the infusing of a feeling of brother- 
hood that will establish justice and good will 
must be the aim of those who are sincerely 
interested in the progress of the race. This is pre- 
eminently the work of our religious teachers, although 
it is a work in which the laity as well as the clergy 
must take part. 

After meeting Pius X., late the beloved patriarch 
of Venice, I feel assured that he is peculiarly fitted to 
lead his portion of the Christian church in this great 
endeavor. 

The Vatican which serves as the home and exe- 
cutive offices of the supreme pontiff of the Catholic 
church is an enormous building, or rather collection 
of buildings for it bears evidence of additions and an- 
nexes. One might be easily lost in its maze of corri- 
dors. The ceilings of the chief apartments are high 
and, like the walls of the spacious rooms and halls, 
are covered with frescoes of priceless value. The vat- 



THE CATHOLIC CAPITAL. 91 

ican adjoins St. Peter's cathedral or basilica as it is 
called — a description of whose beauties would fill a 
volume. The basilica is so harmoniously proportioned 
that one does not appreciate its vastness from a dis- 
tance, but once within its walls it is easy to credit the 
statement that fifty thousand persons can be crowded 
into it. In a crypt just beneath the great dome is the 
tomb of St. Peter about which myriad lamps are kept 
constantly burning. Near the tomb is a crucifix sus- 
pended under a canopy supported by four spiral col- 
umns that are replicas of a column elsewhere in the 
cathedral that is said to have been part of Solomon's 
temple. Not far from the crucifix is the famous 
bronze statue of St. Peter, made from a pagan statue 
of Jupiter. It is mounted upon a pedestal about five 
feet high and the large toe of the right foot, which 
projects over the pedestal, has been worn smooth by 
the lips of devout visitors to the basilica. 

To me the most remarkable of the splendors of 
the cathedral were the Mosaic pictures of which there 
are many of heroic size. These Mosaics depict Bible 
scenes and characters and are done with such mar- 
vellous skill that a little way off one can hardly doubt 
that they are the product of the brush of some great 
master. The colors, tints and shades are so perfect 
that it is difficult to believe that the pictures are 
formed by the piecing together of tiny bits of colored 
marbles and other stones. The Vatican maintains a 
staff of artists in Mosaic, some of whose work may be 
purchased by the public. I was shown the master- 
piece of Michael Angelo in the cathedral of St. Peter 



92 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

in Vinculo — a statue of Moses, seated. In the right 
knee there is a slight crack visible and it is the tradi- 
tion that when the great sculptor had finished his 
work he struck the knee with his mallet in a burst of 
enthusiasm and exclaimed, "Now, speak." St. Paul's 
cathedral, which stands outside the ancient wall of the 
city, is of modern construction and is therefore less in- 
teresting to the visitor than the great basilica of St. 
Peter's. 

Next to the Vatican and the cathedrals in interest 
are the ruins of ancient Rome. In England and France 
I had seen buildings many centuries old ; in Rome one 
walks at the foot of walls that for nearly two thousand 
years have defied the ravages of time. The best pre- 
served and most stupendous of the relics of "The Eter- 
nal City" is the Colosseum. It is built upon a scale 
that gives some idea of the largeness of Roman con- 
ceptions and of the prodigality with which the em- 
perors expended the money and labor of the people. 
The arena in which the gladiators fought with their 
fellows and with wild beasts — the arena in which many 
of the Christian martyrs met their death — is slightly 
oval in form, the longest diameter being about 250 feet. 
The arena was so arranged that it could be flooded 
with water and used for aquatic tournaments. The 
spectators looked down upon the contests from galler- 
ies that rose in four tiers to a height of 150 feet. At 
one end of the arena was the tribune occupied by the 
emperor and his suite; at the other end the vestal vir- 
gins occupied another tribune and it was their privil- 
ege to confer either life or death upon the vanquished 



THE CATHOLIC CAPITAL. 93 

gladiators by turning the thumb up or down — turned 
up it meant life, turned down, death. The Roman 
populace gained access to the galleries by 160 doors 
and stairways. The seating capacity of the Colosseum 
is estimated to have been fifty thousand. 

The Forum is even richer than the Colosseum in 
historic interest and recent excavations have brought 
to light what are supposed to be the tomb of Caesar 
and the tomb of Romulus. The tribune is pointed 
out from which the Roman orators addressed the mul- 
titude. Here Cicero hurled his invectives at Cataline 
and Mark Anthony is by Shakespeare made to plead 
here for fallen Caesar. ■''The triumphal arch of Con- 
stantine stands at one end of the Forum and is in an 
excellent state of preservation. Among the carvings 
lately exhumed are some (especially atractive to an 
agriculturist) showing the forms of the bull, the sheep 
and the hog. They are so like the best breeds of these 
animals today that one can scarcely believe they were 
chiseled from stone nearly twenty centuries ago. In 
Rome, as in Paris, there is a Pantheon in the familiar 
style of Greek architecture. In the Roman Pantheon 
is the tomb of Raphael. Cardinal Bembo in recognition 
of Raphael's genius, caused to be placed upon his tomb 
a Latin epitaph which Hope has translated : 
"Living, great nature feared he might outvie 
Her works, and dying fears herself to die." 
To those who are familiar with Roman history the 
river Tiber is an object of interest, but here, as is often 
the case, one feels disappointed in finding that the 
thing pictured was larger than the reality. The Tiber, 



94 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

yellow as the Missouri, flows through the very heart 
of Rome and is kept within its channel by a high stone 
embankment. In and near Rome are many ancient 
palaces, some of them falling into decay, and some 
well preserved. One of the most modern of the pal- 
aces of the Italian nobles was built by American mon- 
ey, the wife being a member of a wealthy New York 
family. Part of this palace is now occupied by the 
American ambassador, Mr. Myer, to whom I am in- 
debted for courtesies extended in Rome. Art galler- 
ies and museums are numerous in Rome and in the 
other cities of Italy, and contain many of the works 
of the great Italian artists like Raphael Angelo, Titian 
and others. The palace of King Victor Emmanuel 
and the public buildings of Rome are imposing, but do 
not compare in size or magnificence with the ancient 
palaces of England and France. The journey from 
Rome to Venice carried us through a very fertile part 
of Italy. The land is carefully cultivated ; the thrifty 
farmers in some places have set out mulberry trees for 
the cultivation of the silk worm and have trained grape 
vines upon the trees. 

We passed through the edge of Venice and saw 
the gondoliers on the Grand Canal waiting to carry 
passengers into the city. A very intelligent Italian 
newspaper correspondent whom I met in Rome in 
formed me that the northern provinces of Italy were 
much further advanced in education than the southern 
provinces, but that the people of the south were men- 
tally very alert and with the addition of instruction 
would soon reach the intellectual level of the north. 



\ 



THE CATHOLIC CAPITAL 95 

My stay in Italy was all too brief and I left with much 
reluctance this nursery of early civilization — this seat 
bf government of the world's greatest religious organ- 
ization. 



Tolstoy the Apostle of Love. 

Count Leo Tolstoy, the intellectual giant of Rus- 
sia, the moral Titan of Europe and the world's most 
conspicuous exponent of the doctrine of love, is living 
a life of quiet retirement upon his estate near the vil- 
lage of Yasnaya, Poliana, about one hundred and thir- 
ty miles south of Moscow. 

I made a visit to the home of this peasant philoso- 
pher during my stay in Russia, driving from Tula in 
the early morning and arriving just after daylight. 
Consul General Smith of Moscow arranged with 
Count Tolstoy for the visit. I had intended remain- 
ing only a few hours, but his welcome was so cordial 
that my stay was prolonged until near midnight. 
Count Tolstoy is now about seventy-six years old, and 
while he shows the advance of years he is still full of 
mental vigor and retains much of his physical 
strength. As an illustration of the latter, I might refer 
to the horseback ride and walk which we took together 
in the afternoon. The ride covered about four miles 
and the walk about two. When we reached the 
house the count said that he would take a little rest 
and insisted that I should do likewise. A few min- 
utes later when I expressed to the count's physician, 
Dr. Burkenheim, the fear that he might have over- 
taxed his strength, the doctor smilingly assured me 
that the count usually took more exercise, but had 

96 



TOLSl'OY. 

purposely lessened his allowance that day, fearing that 
he might fatigue me. 

Count Tolstoy is an impressive figure. His years 
have only slightly bowed his broad shoulders and his 
step is still alert. In height he is about five feet eight, 
his head is large and his abundant hair is not yet 
wholly white. His large blue eyes are set wide apart 
and are shaded by heavy eyebrows. The forehead is 
unusually wide and high. He wears a long, full 
beard that gives him a patriarchal appearance. The 
mouth is large and the lips full. The nose is rather 
long and the nostrils wide. The hands are muscular, 
and the grasp bespeaks warmth of heart. The count 
dresses like the peasants of his country, wearing a 
grayish-blue blouse belted in at the waist, with skirts 
reaching nearly to the boot-tops. His trousers, also 
of the peasant style, are inclined to be baggy and 
are stuffed into his boots. I was informed that the 
count never wears any other dress even when other 
members of the family are entertaining guests in even- 
ing clothes. 

v The room which I occupied was the one used by 
the count as a study in his younger days, and I was 
shown a ring in the ceiling from which at the age of 
forty-eight he planned to hang himself— a plan from 
which he was turned by the resolve to change the 
manner and purpose of his life. As is well known, 
Count Tolstoy is a member of the Russian nobility and 
for nejarly fifty years led the life of a nobleman. He 
early achieved fame as a novelist, his "War and 
Peace," which was written when he was but a young 



98 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

man, being considered one of the literary master 
pieces of the century. He sounded all the "depth: 
and shoals of honor" in the literary and social world 
he realized all that one could wish or expect in thes< 
lines, but found that success did not satisfy the crav- 
ings of the inner man. While he was meditating up- 
on what he had come to regard as a wasted life, a 
change came over him, and with a faith that has never 
faltered he turned about and entered upon a career 
that has been unique in history. He donned the 
simple garb of a peasant, and, living frugally, has de- 
voted himself to philosophy and unremunerative work 
—that is, unremunerative from a financial standpoint, 
although he declares that it has brought him more 
genuine enjoyment than he ever knew before. All of 
his books written since this change in his life have been 
given to the public without copyright except in one in- 
stance when the proceeds of "Resurrection" were 
pledged to the aid of the Russian Quakers, called 
Doukhobors, whom the count assisted to emigrate 
from their persecution in Russia to western Canada, 
where they now reside. As an evidence of the count's 
complete renunciation of all money considerations, it is 
stated that he has declined an offer of $500,000 for the 
copyright of the books written by him before his life 
current was altered. 

My object in visiting him was not so much to 
learn his views— for his opinions have had wide expres- 
sion and can be found in his numerous essays— but it 
was rather to see the man and ascertain if I could from 
personal contact the secret of the tremendous influence 



TOLSTOY. 99 

that he is exerting upon the thought of the world. I 
am satisfied that, notwithstanding his great intellect, 
his colossal strength lies in his heart more than in his 
mind. It is true that few have equalled him in power 
of analysis and in clearness of statement, while none 
have surpassed him in beauty and aptness of illustra- 
tion. But no one can commune with him without 
feeling that the man is like an overflowing spring- 
asking nothing, but giving always. He preaches self- 
[ abnegation and has demonstrated to his own satis- 
. faction that there is more genuine joy in living for 
others than in living upon others— more happiness in 
serving than in being served. 

The purpose of life, as defined by him, has re- 
cently been quoted by Mr. Ernest Crosby in "The 
Open Court." It reads as follows : 

"Life then is the activity of the animal individual- 
ity working in submission to the law of reason. Reason 
shows man that happiness cannot be obtained by a 
self-life and leaves only one outlet open for him and 
that is love. Love is the only legitimate manifesta- 
tion of life. It is an activity that has for its ob- 
ject the good of others. When it makes its appear- 
ance the meaningless strife of the animal life ceases." 

Love is the dominant note in Count Tolstoy's 
philosophy. It is not only the only weapon of defense 
which he recognizes, but it is the only means by which 
he would influence others. It is both his shield and 
his sword. He is a deeply religious man, notwith- 
standing the fact that he was a few years ago excom- 
municated- by the Russian church. In one of his 
essays he has defined religion as follows: 



100 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

"True religion is a relation, accordant with reason 
and knowledge, which man establishes with the in- 
finite life surrounding him, and it is such as binds his 
life to that infinity, and guides his conduct." 

He not only takes his stand boldly upon the side 
of spiritual, as distinguished from material, philosophy, 
but he administers a rebuke to those who assume that 
religious sentiment is an indication of intellectual 
weakness or belongs to the lower stages of man's de- 
velopment. In his essay on "Religion and Morality," 
to which he referred me for his opinion on this subject, 
he says : 

"Moreover, every man who has ever, even in 
childhood, experienced religious feeling, knows by 
personal experience that it was evoked in him, not by 
external, terrifying, material phenomena, but by an 
inner consciousness, which had nothing to do with 
the fear of the unknown forces of nature — a conscious- 
ness of his own insignificance, loneliness and guilt. 
And, therefore, both by external observation and by 
personal experience, man may know that religion is 
not the worship of gods, evoked by superstitious fear 
of the invisible forces of nature, proper to men only at 
a certain period of their development; but is some- 
thing quite independent either of fear or of their de- 
gree of education — a something that cannot be de- 
stroyed by any development of culture. For manV 
consciousness of his finiteness amid an infinite uni- 
verse, and of his sinfulness (i. e., of his not having 
done all he might and should have done) has always 
existed and will exist as long as man remains man." 



TOLSTOY. ]01 

If religion is an expression of "man's conscious- 
ness of his finiteness amid an infinite universe, and of 
his sinfulness," it cannot be outgrown until one be- 
lieves himself to have reached perfection and to pos- 
sess all knowledge, and observation teaches us that 
those who hold this opinion of themselves are not the 
farthest advanced, but simply lack that comprehension 
of their own ignorance and frailty which is the very 
beginning of progress. 

Count Tolstoy is an advocate of the doctrine of 
non-resistance. He not only believes that evil can be 
overcome by good, but he denies that it can be over- 
come in any other way. I asked him several questions 
on this subject, and the following dialogue presents 
his views : 

Q. Do you draw any line between the use of force 
to avenge an injury already received, and the use of 
force to protect yourself from an injury about to be 
inflicted ? 

A. No. Instead of using violence to protect my- 
self, I ought rather to express my sorrow that I had 
done anything that would make anyone desire to 
injure me. 

Q. Do you draw a line between the use of force 
to protect a right and the use of force to create a right? 

A. No. That is the excuse generally given for 
the use of violence. Men insist that they are simply 
defending a right, when, in fact, they are trying to 
secure something that they desire and to which they 
are not entitled. The use of violence is not necessary 
to secure one's rights ; there are more effective means. 



102 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Q. Do you draw any distinction between the use 
of force to protect yourself and the use of force to pro- 
tect some one under your care — a child, for instance? 

A. No. As we do not attain entirely to our 
ideals, we might find it difficult in such a case not to 
resort to the use of force,but it would not be justifiable, 
and, besides, rules cannot be made for such excep- 
tional cases. Millions of people have been the vic- 
tims of force and have suffered because it has been 
thought right to employ it; but I am now old and I 
have never known in all my life a single instance in 
which a child was attacked in such a way that it would 
have been necessary for me to use force for its protec- 
tion. I prefer to consider actual rather than imaginary 
cases. 

I found later that this last question had been 
answered in a letter on non-resistance addressed to 
Mr. Ernest Crosby, in 1896, (included in a little vol- 
ume of Tolstoy's Essays and Letters recently pub- 
lished by Grant Richards, Leicester Square, London, 
and reprinted by Funk & Wagnalls of New York). In 
this letter he says : 

"None of us has ever yet met the imaginary rob- 
ber with the imaginary child, but all the horrors which 
fill the annals of history and of our own times came 
and come from this one thing — that people will believe 
that they can foresee the results of hypothetical future 
actions." 

When I visited him he was just finishing an in- 
troduction to a biographical sketch of William Lloyd 



TOLSTOY. 103 

Garrison, his attention having been called to Garrison 
by the latter's advocacy of the doctrine of non-resist- 
ance. 

Tolstoy, in one of the strongest essays that he has 
written — an essay entitled "Industry and Idleness"— 
elaborates and defends the doctrine advanced by a 
Russian name Bondaref, to the effect that each indi- 
vidual should labor with his hands, at least to the 
extent of producing his own food. I referred to this 
and asked him for a brief statement of his reasons. He 
said that it was necessary for one to engage in manual 
labor in order to keep himself in sympathy with those 
who toil, and he described the process by which people 
first relieve themselves of the necessity of physical 
exertion and then come to look with a sort of con- 
tempt upon those who find it necessary to work with 
their hands. He believes that lack of sympathy lies 
at the root of most of the injustice which men suffer 
at the hands of their fellows. He holds that it is not 
sufficient that one can remember a time when he 
earned his bread in the sweat of his brow, but that he 
must continue to know what physical fatigue means 
and what drudgery is, in order that he may rightly 
estimate his brother and deal with him as a brother. 
In addition to this he says that, when one begins to 
live upon the labor of others, he is never quite sure 
that he is earning his living. Let me quote his lan- 
guage : "If you use more than you produce you can- 
not be quite content, if you are a conscientious man. 
Who can know how much I work? It is impossible. 
A man must work as much as he can with his hands. 



104 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

taking the most difficult and disagreeable tasks, that 
is, if he wishes to have a quiet conscience. Mental 
work is much easier than physical work, despite what 
is said to the contrary. No work is too humble, too 
disagreeable, to do. No man ought to dodge work. 
If I dodge work I feel guilty. There are some people 
who think they are so precious that other people must 
do the dirty, disagreeable work for them. Every man 
is so vain as to think his own work most important. 
That is why I try to work with my hands by the side 
of workingmen. If I write a book, I cannot be quite 
sure whether it will be useful or not. If I produce 
something that will support life, I know that I have 
done something useful." 

Tolstoy presents an ideal, and while he recognizes 
that the best of efforts is but an approach to the ideal, 
he does not consent to the lowering of the ideal itself 
or the defense of anything that aims at less than the 
entire realization of the ideal. He is opposed to what 
he calls palliatives, and insists that we need the re- 
formation of the individual more than the reformation 
of law or government. He holds that the first thing 
to do is to substitute the Christian spirit for the 
selfish spirit. He likens those who are trying to make 
piecemeal progress, to persons who are trying to push 
cars along a track by putting their shoulders against 
the cars. He says that they could better employ their 
energy by putting steam in the engine, which would 
then pull the cars. And the religious spirit he defines 
as "such a belief in God and such a feeling of responsi- 
bility to God as will manifest itself both in the wor- 



TOLSTOY. 105 

ship of the Creator and in fellowship with the created." 
During the course of his conversation he touched 
on some of the problems with which the various na- 
tions have to deal. Of course he is opposed to war 
under all circumstances, and regards the professional 
soldier as laboring under a delusion. He says that 
soldiers, instead of following their consciences, accept 
the doctrine that a soldier must do what he is com- 
manded to do, placing upon his superior officer the 
responsibility for the command. He denies that any 
individual can thus shift the responsibility for his con- 
duct. In speaking of soldiers, he expressed an opin- 
ion that indicates his hostility to the whole miltary 
system. He said that soldiers insisted upon being tried 
by military men and military courts, and added: 
"That is amusing. I remember that when that plea 
was made in a case recently, I retorted that if that 
was so, why was not a murderer justified in demand- 
ing a trial at the hands of murderers, or a burglar in 
demanding trial by a jury of burglars. That would 
be on all fours with the other proposition." 

He is not a believer in protection, and regards a 
tariff levied upon all of the people for the benefit of 
some of the people as an abuse of government and 
immoral in principle. I found that he was an admirer 
of Henry George and a believer in his theory in regard 
to the single tax. 

He is opposed to trusts. He says that the trust 
is a new kind of despotism and that it is a menace to 
modern society. He regards the power that it gives 
men to oppress their fellows as even more dangerous 
than its power to reap great profits. 



106 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

He referred to some of our very rich men and de- 
clared that the possession of great wealth was ob- 
jectionable, both because of its influence over its pos- 
sessor and because of the power it gave him over his 
fellows. I asked him what use a man could make of 
a great fortune, and he replied : "Let him give it 
away to the first person he meets. That would be 
better than keeping it." And then he told how a lady 
of fortune once asked his advice as to what she could 
do with her money (she derived her income from a 
large manufacturing establishment) and he replied 
that if she wanted to do good with her money she 
might help her work-people to return to the country, 
and assist them in buying and stocking their farms. 
"If I do that," she exclaimed in dismay, "I would not 
have any people to work for me, and my income would 
disappear." 

As all are more or less creatures of environment, 
Tolstoy's views upon religion have probably been col- 
ored somewhat by his experience with the Greek 
church. He has, in some instances, used arguments 
against the Greek church which are broad enough to 
apply to all church organizations. He has not always 
discriminated between the proper use of an organiza- 
tion, and the abuse of the power which a large organ- 
ization possesses. While animated by a sincere desire 
to hasten the reign of universal brotherhood, and to 
help the world to a realization of the central thought 
of Christ's teachings, he has not, I think, fully appre- 
ciated the great aid which a church organization can 
lend when properly directed. In the work in which 



TOLSTOY. 107 

Tolstoy is engaged, he will find his strongest allies 
among church members to whom the commandment 
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" is not merely 
sound philosophy, but a divine decree. These will 
work in the church and through the church, while he 
.stands without iaising his voice to the same God and 
.calling men to the same kind of life. 

His experience with the arbitrary methods of his 
own government has led him to say things that have 
been construed as a condemnation of all government. 
He as seen so much violence and injustice done in 
the name of the government, that it is not strange that 
the evils of government should impress him more than 
its possibilities for good. And yet those who believe 
that a just government is a blessing can work with 
him in the effort to secure such remedial measures as 
he asks for in his letter "To the Czar and His As- 
sistants." 

Tolstoy's career shows how despotic is the sway 
of the heart and how, after all, it rules the world, for 
while his literary achievements have been admired, 
the influence which they have exerted is as nothing 
compared with the influence exerted by his philosophy. 
People enjoy reading his character sketches, his dia- 
logues and his descriptions of Russian life, but these 
do not take hold upon men like his simple presentation 
of the doctrine of love, exemplified in his life as clearly 
as it is expressed by his pen. Many of his utterances 
are denied publication in Russia, and when printed 
abroad cannot be carried across the border, and yet 
he has made such a powerful impression upon the 



108 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

world that he is himself safe from molestation. He 
can say with impunity against his government and 
against the Greek church, what it would be perilous for 
others to say, and his very security is proof positive 
that in Russia thought inspired by love is, as Carlyle 
has declared it to be everywhere, stronger than artil- 
lerv parks. 



NOTES ON EUROPE. 

In the articles written on the different European 
nations visited I confined myself to certain subjects, 
but there are a number of things worthy of comment 
which were not germane to the matters discussed. I 
shall present some of these under the above head. 

An American who travels in England in the win- 
ter time is sure to notice the coldness of the cars. The 
English people do not seem to notice this, for if they 
did the matter would certainly be remedied; but the 
stranger who has to wrap up in blankets and keep his 
feet upon a tank of hot water, makes comparisons be- 
tween the comfort of the American railway cars and 
those of England, much to the disadvantage of the 
latter. On the continent the temperature of the cars 
is higher and travel more pleasant. 

Sheep graze in the very suburbs of London. This 
was a surprise to me. I saw more sheep in the little 
traveling that I did in England than I have seen in the 
United States east of the Mississippi River in years of 
travel. But after one has enjoyed for a few days the 
English mutton chop, the best in the world, he under- 
stands why English sheep are privileged to graze upon 
high priced lands. 

No stranger visits London without seeing the 
Parliament Building. It is an imposing structure 
viewed from the outside, and has many handsome 
rooms and corridors., but the House of Parliament 

109 



110 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

is disappointing. The chamber occupied by the mem- 
bers of Parliament is small compared with the num- 
ber of members. There are no desks and the benches 
will not accommodate more than half of the member- 
ship. It is evident that they do not expect a full at- 
tendance. The gallery is also diminutive and capable 
of seating but a few persons. And yet, Parliament 
rules England. It is the great legislative body of the 
British Isles, and all important questions are settled 
there. When Parliament declares against a policy of 
the Government, the Government bows to its will and 
summons the leader of the opposition to form a new 
cabinet. While the House of Lords has the legal right 
to oppose measures that arise in Parliament, it 
seldom does so ; and while the king has a legal right 
to veto, that right has not been exercised for a long 
time. When one considers the paramount influence of 
Parliament over the English Government, he under- 
stands why men like Gladstone would prefer to be in 
Parliament rather than in the House of Lords. 

The House of Lords is much more elegantly fur- 
nished than Parliament, but it excites curiosity rather 
than interest. It, too, is small compared with the 
number of Lords ; but as the Lords seldom attend, the 
accommodations are ample. Only three members are 
required to constitute a quorum, and it is easy there- 
fore to get together enough to acquiesce in measures 
that pass Parliament. So far as any real influence is 
concerned the House of Lords might as well be abol- 
ished; and as only three are necessary to constitute a 
quorum, it would only be necessary to reduce the nee- 



NOTES ON EUROPE. Ill 

cssary number by three and make none a quorum to. 
entirely remove this legislative body from consider- 
ation. 

The Courts of England are a matter of interest to 
American lawyers, and a matter of curiosity to other 
Americans. As our Supreme Judges wear gowns, the 
gown is not so unfamiliar to us ; but the wig, which is 
still worn by the English judges, barristers and solici- 
tors, is not seen in this country. The wig is made of 
white curly hair and does not reach much below the 
ears. When the wearer has black hair, or red hair, or 
in fact hair of any color except white, the contrast be- 
tween the wig and the natural hair sometimes excites 
a smile from those who are not impressed with the 
necessity for this relic of ancient times. In one of the 
court rooms which I visited, a son of Charles Dickens 
was arguing a case, and while I did not recognize 
any of the brilliancy and humor that have led me to 
place Dickens at the head of the novelists whom I 
have read, the son is said to be a reasonably success- 
ful lawyer. In one of the Admiralty Courts a very 
bushy headed wharfman was testifying to a salvage 
contract which he had made and he was quite em- 
phatic in his assertions that the terms were "'alf and 
'alf." 

In one of che court rooms Lord Alverstone was 
presiding, and I had the pleasure of meeting him 
afterwards at dinner in Lincoln Inn Court. He is one 
of the finest looking men whom I met in England. He 
rendered a decision in favor of the United States in 
the matter of the recent arbitration with Canada. 



112 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Ambassador Joseph Choate placed me under ob» 
ligations to him, as did also Secretary of the Legation, 
Henry White, by their many courtesies extended. 

At Mr. Choate's table I had the pleasure of meet* 
ing Right Hon. A. J. Balfour, the present Premier. H* 
strikes one as a scholarly man rather than as a par- 
liamentary fighter. He has had a remarkable official 
career. As he was and is still a bimetallist, I found 
him a congenial man to have at my right. Mr. Richie, 
who left the Cabinet because of a disagreement with 
Mr. Balfour on the Fiscal question, sat at my left, and 
as he was an ardent opponent of protection, I had no 
trouble conversing with him. I learned afterwards 
that Mr. Balfour and Mr. Richie had not met since 
the Cabinet rupture. Among those present at the 
table was Hon. Leonard Courtney, for many years a 
member of Parliaments He was a member of the 
Royal Commission that presented the now world re- 
nowned report on falling prices. He also took an 
active part in opposing the war against the Boers. In 
appearance he reminds one of Senator Allen G. Thur- 
man, having something of the same strength and rug- 
gedness of feature. I am indebted to him for an op- 
portunity to visit Lincoln Inn Court, where I met a 
number of other eminent judges besides Lord Alver- 
stone. j 

Mr. Moreton Frewen was also a guest of Ambas- 
sador Choate on that occasion. He has frequently 
visited the United States and has written much on the 
subject of silver. When he came to the United States 
soon after the election in 1896, and was told that there. 



NOTES ON EUROPE. 113 

had been some repeating in some of the cities, he in- 
quired, "Is it not twice as honest to vote twice for 
honest money as to vote once?" I found, however, 
that he was working with the Chamberlain protec- 
tionists, who, by the way, call themselves "tariff re- 
formers." He had found a Bible passage which he 
was using on the stump. It was taken from Genesis. 
Pharaoah said to some one who inquired of him, "Go 
unto Joseph ; what he saith to you, do." It seems, 
however, from the more recent elections, that the peo- 
ple have refused to identify the modern Joseph with 
the ancient one. 

At Mr. Choate's table the subject of story telling 
was discussed, and some comment made about the 
proverbial slowness of the Englishman in catching the 
point of American stories. I determined to test this 
with a story and told of the experience of the minister 
who was arguing against the possibility of perfection 
in this life. He asked his congregation, "Is there any 
one here who is perfect?" No one arose. "Is there 
any one in the congregation who has ever seen a per- 
fect person?" No one arose. Continuing his inquiry, 
he asked, "Is there any one here who has ever heard 
of a perfect person?" A very meek little woman arose 
in the rear of the room. He repeated his question to 
be sure that she understood, and as she again declared 
that she had heard of such a person, he asked her to 
give the name of the perfect person of whom she had 
heard. She replied, "My husband's first wife." All of 
the Englishmen at the table saw the point of the story 



114: UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

at once, and one of them remarked that he thought the 
story would be appreciated wherever domestic life is 
known. 

While the English are not given to the telling of 
stories as much as the Americans are, it must not be 
inferred that they are deficient in a sense of humor, 
The Briton is really fond of fun, as any one must con- 
clude who reads English literature or listens to Eng- 
lish speeches. English humor, however, is of the quiet 
and continuous style rather than of the bubbling and 
explosive variety. 

It was my good fortune to meet in London, Mr 
Sidney Webb and his talented wife, both of whom 
have written extensively on municipal ownership and 
industrial co-operation. 

One of the most interesting figures in European 
journalism is Sir Alfred Harmsworth, proprietor of the 
London Daily Mail. He has achieved a remarkable 
success and is still a young man. His country home, 
some thirty miles out from London, is an old English 
castle which he recently secured for a long term of 
years. The house was built more than three hundred 
years ago by one of the kings for a favorite courtier. 
The estate is large enough to include farm and pasture 
lands and a well stocked hunting preserve. Lady 
Harmsworth is one of the most beautiful women in 
the kingdom and entertains lavishly. 

The average foreigner does not have any higher 
opinion than the American does of those "interna- 
tional marriages" by means of which some of the de- 
caying estates of titled foreigners are being restored. 



NOTES ON EUROPE 115 

but there are many marriages between our people and 
Europeans which rest upon affection and congeniality. 
The union of Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain and the 
daughter of Ex-Secretary Endicott, who was at the 
head of the Navy Department during Mr. Cleveland's 
first administration, is a notable illustration. Mrs. 
Chamberlain is a charming and accomplished woman 
and justly popular with the Britons as well as with 
the Americans who visit England. 

The American tourist is sure to find some of his 
countrymen stranded in London. I met several of 
them. Most of them represented themselves as re- 
lated to prominent political friends, and these I could 
assist without inquiring too closely into the alleged 
relationship, but one case of a different kind failed to 
appeal to me. A lady who attached a high sounding 
title to her name sent her secretary to solicit aid. He 
represented her as an American who had against her 
parents' wishes married a titled Englishman ; her hus- 
band had deserted her and her physician had told her 
that her health required that she spend the winter in 
Southern France. Her American relatives were rich, 
I was assured, but she was too proud to let them know 
of her misfortune. It was a sad story even when told 
by a secretary (how she could afford one I do not 
know), but I did not feel justified in encouraging a 
pride that led her to make her wants known to 
strangers rather than to her own kin. 

In my article on the growth of municipal owner- 
ship (it will be found on another page), I referred to 
the work of John Burns, the noted labor leader of 



116 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

London. I may add here that his seven or eight years 
old son is the handsomest child that I saw in England. 
I was on the stage at Lord Roseberry's meeting and 
my attention was attracted to a child of unusual 
beauty sitting just in front of me. I asked the gentle- 
man at my side whether he was a fair sample of the 
English boy; he replied that he was an excellent rep- 
resentative. Soon afterward the mother introduced 
herself to me as the wife of John Burns. I thought it 
an interesting co-incidence that I should admire the 
child unconscious of his relationship to the man who 
had the day before impressed me so favorably. 

And, speaking of Mr. Burns, I reproduce below an 
item which appeared in one of the London papers the 
day after I returned Mr. Burns' call. He sent it to me 
with the remark that it probably differed from the per- 
sonal items to which I was accustomed. It reads : — 
"Mr. Burns' Mysterious Visitor. 

"Just before ten o'clock this (Friday) morning a 
hansom cab (plentifully bespattered with gilt coro- 
nets) stopped outside the residence of Mr. Burns, Lav- 
ender Hill. A person alighted and was received with 
every appearance of cordiality by Mr. Burns, who 
escorted him into the house. We believe the visitor 
was Lord Roseberry; he certainly bore a striking re- 
semblance to that childlike peer. Possibly, however, 
it was only the King of Italy. In diplomatic circles it 
has been known for a long time that his Italian Maj- 
esty intended to visit the Municipal Mecca for much 
the same reasons that induced Peter the Great of Rus- 
sia to come to England. It was known, also, that he 



NOTES ON EUROPE. 117 

would come in some sort of disguise. That Mr. Burns' 
visitor this morning was a person of importance is 
evidenced by the fact that a constable in uniform and 
two or three other men (probably secret service offi- 
cers) were in waiting when the cab drew up. They 
stood round the visitor and the constable saluted re- 
spectfully. A uniformed policeman had been in the 
neighborhood of Mr. Burns' house and the "Crown" 
all the morning. 

(Note — It was an ordinary cab and no policemen 
or secret service men were in sight. — Editor.) 

•Westminster Abbey is one of the places which 
the visitor cannot well neglect. It was originally the 
burial place of royalty, and as the guide shows you 
the tablets and statues which perpetuate the memory 
of warrior kings and tells you how this king killed 
that one, and that king killed another, you recall the 
story of the American minister who concluded a very 
short discourse at the funeral of a man of question- 
able character by saying, "Some believe that he was a 
tolerable good man, while others believe that he was 
a very bad man, but whether he was good or bad we 
have this consolation, that he is dead." It is a relief 
to pass from the bloody annals of the earlier days and 
from the bloody deeds of ancient royalty to that part 
of the building which is honored by memorials of the 
great men in modern English life. To the American 
the most noted of those recently buried in Westmin- 
ster Abbey was Gladstone. His life spanned the pres- 
ent and the past generation, and his character and tal- 
ents are regarded as a part of the heritage of English 
speaking people. 



118 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

A description of the Art Gallery, the public build- 
ings, the Tower, and of the many interesting and his- 
toric places would occupy more space than I can spare 
at this time. 

I shall pass from England with one observation. 
Upon the streets of London, and in fact throughout 
the British Isles, the rule is to "turn to the left." The 
American notices this at once, and until he becomes 
accustomed to it he, is in danger of collision. If Eng- 
land and the United States ever come together in an 
unfriendly way, it will probably be accounted for by 
the difference in our rules. We will be turning to the 
right while she will be turning to the left. 

Queenstown, Ireland, the first town to greet the 
tourist when he reaches Northern Europe and the last 
to bid him farewell when he departs, is a quaint and 
interesting old place. It is near the City of Cork, and 
the names upon the signs — the Murphys, the McDon- 
alds, the O'Briens, etc., are so familiar that one might 
suppose it to be an American colony. Here the re- 
turning traveler has a chance to spend any change 
which he has left, for black thorn canes and shillalahs, 
"Robert Emmett" and "Harp of Erin" handkerchiefs 
and lace collars are offered in abundance. The price 
of these wares has been known to fall considerably as 
trie moment of departure approaches. At Queenstown 
one can hear the Irish brogue in all its richness and if 
he takes a little jaunt about the town he can enjoy 
the humor for which the Irish are famed. 

Scotland has a hardy population, due probably to 
the climate. Even near the southern boundary, the 



NOTES ON EUROPE. 119 

weather was quite wintry before Thanskgiving Day of 
last year. Scotch plaids are in evidence at the stores 
and the visitor has an opportunity to buy traveling 
blankets bearing the figures and the colors of the va- 
rious Scottish clans. As I visited Scotland to study 
municipal ownership I reserved for a future trip a 
visit to the places of natural and historic interest. 

Strange that a narrow channel should make such 
a difference as there is between the Englishman and 
the Frenchman. Some one has said, "Not only is 
England an island, but each Englishman is an island." 
This puts the case a little too strongly, but one no- 
tices that the French are much more gregarious than 
the English and more inclined to sociability. Their at- 
tention to strangers while not more sincere is more 
marked. 

Paris seems to be the favorite place for residence 
for Americans who desire to live in Europe. The cli- 
mate is milder, the attractions are more numerous and 
the cooking, it is said, is the best in the world. 

The automobile seems to have captured Paris, pos- 
sibly because of its many wide streets and boule- 
vards. 

While the tipping system may not be worse in 
France than in other countries, it is certainly nowhere 
more fully developed. It is said that in some of the 
fashionable restaurants of Paris the tips are so valua- 
ble that the waiters, instead of receiving wages, pay 
a bonus for a chance to serve. But all over Europe 
service of every kind is rewarded with tips, and a 
failure to comply with the custom makes the delin- 
quent a persona non grata. At the hotels all the at- 



120 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

tendants seem to get notice of the intended departure 
of a guest and they line up to receive a remembrance — 
porter, chambermaid, valet, bell-boy, elevator man, 
and some whose faces are entirely new to the guest. 
The cab-drivers collect the fare fixed by city ordinance 
and expect a tip besides. Ten per cent is the amount 
usually given and anything less fails to elicit thanks. 
An Irish jaunting car driver at QueenstOwn took out 
his tip in making change. While the traveller is often 
tempted to rebel against the tip system as it is found 
in Europe, he finally concludes that he can not reform 
a continent in one brief visit and submits with as good 
grace as possible. 

Guides can be found at all the leading hotels and 
they are well worth what they charge. They are ac- 
quainted with all places of interest, and can act as in- 
terpreters if one wants to make enquiries or do shop- 
ping. 

The rivers of Europe which have been immorta- 
lized in poetry and song — the rivers whose names we 
learn when as children we study geography — are a lit- 
tle disappointing. The Thames at London, the Seine 
at Paris, the Tiber at Rome, the Danube at Vienna, the 
Spree at Berlin, the Po in northern Italy, and the 
Rhine are not as large as fancy has pictured ; but the 
lakes of Switzerland surpass description. 

I regretted that I could not visit the Bay of Na- 
ples, for I never think of it without recalling the lines: 



NOTES ON EUROPE 121 

I care not if 

My little skiff 
Float swift or slow 

From cliff to cliff. 
With dreamful eyes 

My spirit lies 
Under the walls 

Of Paradise. 

Surely it must be a delightfully restful place if it 
justifies the description given by the poet. 

I was disappointed that I did not have time to see 
more of Germany. Berlin was the only city in which 
I stopped, and the fact that the Holiday festivities 
were at their height made it difficult to prosecute any 
investigation. In another article I have discussed the 
German socialistic propaganda, and I shall here con- 
tent myself with calling attention to their railroad 
system. The total railroad mileage at the end of the 
year 1900, as reported by the American consul, was 
28.601. Of this mileage private companies owned 2,573, 
and the federal government 798, the remainder was 
owned by the various German states, some of the states 
owning but a few miles of line. The ownership of the 
railroads by the various states does not in the least 
interfere with the operation of the lines. The plan in 
operation in Germany suggests the possibility of state 
ownership in this country as distinguished from fed- 
eral ownership. 

In Austria I saw for the first time the systematic 
cultivation of forests. In some places the various 
plantings were near enough together to show trees of 



122 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

all sizes. At one side the trees were but a few feet in 
height while those at the other side of the forest were 
being converted into fuel. 

Vienna, the capital of Austria, is not the "Old 
Vienna" which was re-produced at the Chicago 
World's Fair and at the Buffalo Exposition, but is a 
substantial, new, and up-to-date city. The stores ex- 
hibit an endless variety of leather goods, and I found 
there, as also in Belgium, many novelties in iron, steel 
and brass. 

Russia deserves more attention than I could give 
it in the articles on Tolstoy and the czar. It is a land 
of wonderful resources and possibilities, and is making 
great progress considering the fact that a large pro- 
portion of the population has so recently emerged from 
serfdom. The peasants live in villages as in France 
and their life is primitive compared with life in the 
larger cities. There has been rapid growth in manu- 
facturing, commerce and art. Besides furnishing one 
of the greatest of novelists, Tolstoy, who is also the 
greatest of living philosophers, Russia has given to the 
world many others who are prominent in literature 
and in art. There is an art gallery at Moscow devoted 
almost entirely to the work of Russian artists. Here 
one finds a most interesting collection, a large number 
of the pictures being devoted to home scenes and his- 
toric events. In this gallery the nude in art is notice- 
able by its absence. In the art gallery at St. Peters- 
burg most of the paintings are by foreign artists. 
There is in this gallery a wonderful collection of cam- 
eos, jewelry and precious stones. 

I found in Russia a very friendly feeling toward 



NOTES ON EUROPE 123 

the United States. Prince Hilkoff, who is at the 
head of the Siberian railroad, speaks English fluently, 
as do nearly all the other prominent officials. He in- 
formed me that he visited the United States about 
1858 and crossed the plains by wagon. He inquired 
about the Platte river and its branches and remem- 
bered the names of the forts along the route. 

The driving horses of St. Petersburg are the best 
that I saw in Europe. They are round, strongly built, 
graceful in form and even in gait. They are not as 
speedy as the standard-bred trotters, but they are 
hardy and sufficiently fast. A peculiar yoke or half 
yoke is used to which the harness is fastened. It is at 
the end of the shafts and rises considerably above the 
shoulders. Often three horses are driven abreast. In 
such case the horse in the center is trained to carry 
his head up and the horses on either side turn their 
heads out. They present a very attractive appearance 
when fastened to the sleigh or to the drosky. 

I have spoken in another article of the deep hold 
whieh the Greek church has upon the people of Russia. 
A story which I heard in St. Petersburg illustrates 
this. An American residing there asked her cook to 
go to the market after some pigeons, or doves as 
they are more often called. The latter was horrified 
at the thought and refused, saying, ''The Holy Ghost 
descended upon our Saviour in the form of a dove 
and it might be in one of these." Another American 
was rebuked by her servant who when told to throw 
something out of the window replied "This is Easter 
and Christ is risen. He might be passing by at this 
moment." 



124 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

In Russia we find the extremes. The government 
is the most arbitrary known among civilized nations 
and yet in Russia are to be found some of the most 
advanced and devoted advocates of civil liberty. No- 
where is the doctrine of force more fully illustrated 
and yet from Russia come the strongest arguments in 
favor of non-resistance. The poison and the antidote 
seem to be found near together in the world of thought 
as well as in the physical world. 






The Pearl of the 
Antilles 



Written for and copyrighted by Collier's Weekly, and reproduced 
by courtesy of that paper 



THE PEARL OF THE ANTILLES. 

Cuba, the largest, richest and most populous of 
the West Indian islands, lies about ninety miles south 
of Key West, the southernmost point of Florida. It 
is separated from the mainland by that mightiest river 
of the earth, the Gulf Stream, whose resistless cur- 
rent sweeps to the northeast through a channel half 
a mile deep and carries the warmth of the southern 
seas far into the Temperate Zone. 

"The Pearl of the Antilles," as Cuba is called, is 
about nine hundred miles from east to west, and so 
narrow (about one hundred and twenty miles at its 
greatest width) that it looks on the map like a small 
arc of a great circle. Its coast line is broken by in- 
numerable bays and harbors, many of them admir- 
ably adapted for commerce. A large part of the sur- 
face of the island is made up of rolling prairies and the 
land is generally fertile. In the east a mountain range 
rises to a considerable height, terminating in Pico Tur- 
quino, which lifts its peak to an elevation of six thous- 
and nine hundred feet. The rivers are abundant, but 
are not navigable to any great extent There are a 
number of excellent turnpikes, many of them lined on 
either side with shade and flowering trees The 
stranger is at once attracted by the Royal Ponciana 
(flamboyant), a tree which grows to the height of 
thirty or forty feet, spreads out like a great umbrella 
and is covered with clusters of bright red flowers. The 

189 



140 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

royal palm is the most important tree of the island. 
Its slender trunk rises to a great height, and it pre- 
sents an imposing appearance. Its foliage furnishes 
the material commonly used for the thatching of the 
roofs of the huts, and the bark which it sheds each 
year furnises the material used for making baskets, 
for the siding of houses and for the baling of tobacco. 
The wood of the royal palm, while not hard enough 
for building purposes, is still useful for fences and 
light work. This tree is so indispensable to the people 
of the island that it has been made a part of the Cuban 
coat of arms. 

Cuba also produces a large variety of hard woods, 
the best known being mahogany and ebony ; but there 
are others almost as beautiful and as useful. The 
employes of Colonel Bliss, the collector of customs at 
Havana, presented him a beautiful desk and cabinet 
upon his departure from the island. It was made by 
Senor Nicolas Quintana, and eighteen different kinds 
of wood were employed in its construction. It not 
only shows the variety of hard woods, but is an ex- 
cellent specimen of the cabinet-maker's skill. 

The climate of Cuba is mild and the temperature 
quite uniform. Even in the warmest part of the sum- 
mer the mercury seldom rises above 92 in the shade 
and in the winter it does not fall below 40 or 45. The 
sun, however, is very hot, and for eight or nine months 
in the year work is practically suspended during the 
middle of the day. 

A visitor to the island even in the month of May 
finds the Panama hat an indispensable companion of 
the men and the fan a necessary part of the apparel of 



PEARL OF THE ANTILLES 141 

the women; and it may be added that the hats range 
in price from a few dollars to one hundred and the 
fans from a few cents to five hundred dollars. In pur- 
chasing it is well to have some one along who is a 
good judge of the quality of these articles, because 
the stranger often finds it difficult to measure the 
value except by the price placed upon the article and 
this price is sometimes adjusted according to a sliding 
scale. 

The rainfall in Cuba varies ; sometimes it amounts 
to one hundred inches in a year and at other times it 
is considerably less. The rainy season usually begins 
in May and ends in October or November, and during 
this period a rainfall of ten or twelve inches in a day 
is not rare ; and yet the land is not badly washed. 

The island is full of springs, many of them of 
considerable size. The city of Havana is supplied 
from an enormous spring which issues from the side 
of a hill about ten miles south of Havana. The water 
is clear and wholesome. The only fault that it has is 
a trace of lime, a characteristic of most of the spring 
water of the island. This spring not only supplies all 
the water that Havana needs, but nearly forty per 
cent of the flow is turned into an adjoining river as 
waste. The water is carried to the city through an 
immense aqueduct which was constructed by a Span- 
iard named Albear, who came from his native country 
with plans which were accepted and carried out by 
local authorities. While the expense was very great, 
the work was well done and is a monument to the 
genius of the engineer. I call particular attention to 



142 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Havana's water supply because in contemplating a 
visit to the island the character of the water gave me 
most concern, and I had resolved to rely upon Apol- 
linaris or some other mineral water. The first day in 
the city, however, convinced me that the water was 
pure, and I drank it freely during my week's stay. 

The resources of the island have not been fully 
developed, and many things that are imported might 
as well be raised at home. The diversification of the 
industries of the island ought to be one of the first 
works to engage the attention of the minister of agri- 
culture. The cocoanut, orange and pineapple are 
found in reasonable abundance ; a small but very pal- 
atable banana and a small lime are grown. Tomtoes, 
cabbages and a number of other vegetables are being 
cultivated, but truck gardening has not reached the 
perfection that it has in the United States. 

At present the sugar and tobacco industries are 
given almost undivided attention. The sugar crop of 
Cuba amounted to 1,054,214 tons in the season of 
1893-94. During the war it fell to as low as 212,051 
tons — that was during the year 1896-97. There has 
been a gradual increase from that date to the present 
year, when it is estimated that the crop will equal 
700,000 tons. This is almost all raw sugar and is sent 
to the United States; the exports of refined sugar do 
not average $3,000 per year, and the average amount 
exported to countries other than the United States 
does not exceed 1,000 tons. Cuba is exceptionally 
fitted for the production of sugar. The cane grows 
throughout the entire year and does not require re- 



PEARL OF THE ANTILLES 143 

planting. A crop can be harvested every nine or ten 
months and one planting will last for from eight to 
fifteen years, according to the soil and care. In fact, 
there are instances of fields that have not been re- 
planted for thirty or forty years. 

Tobacco is not so important a crop as sugar, and 
yet in Pinar del Rio, the western province of the isl- 
and, there is produced a variety of tobacco that has 
made the Havana cigar famous the world over. The 
tobacco exports were valued at $21,084,750 in 1899 
and at $26,084,971 in 1900. 

Horses and mules are sometimes used for carrying 
burdens, an immense sack with a large pocket on either 
side being thrown across the back of the animal. The 
ox, however, is usually employed for the cultivation of 
the soil and for the carrying of farm products. The 
American who visits the island will notice the yoke. 
Instead of putting the burden upon the shoulders as 
the American yoke does, it is fastened around the 
horns like the Assyrian yoke, so that the ainmals push 
the load with their heads. 

One notices the scarcity of milk and butter. Upon 
inquiry I was told that the milk yielded very little 
cream and that the natives used butter scarcely at all. 
American residents, however, insisted that it was due 
to the fact that cows were not cared for as in the 
United States, and one who has had considerable ex- 
perience in Cuba declared that he had fed grain to his 
cows and secured as good a result in both milk and 
butter as could be secured in the United States. The 
pasturage is excellent, and several Americans are plan- 



144 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

ning to make an experiment in cattle raising. They 
claim that a steer can be raised and fattened on half 
the sum required in the western states. They believe 
that sufficient meat can be produced to supply the 
entire island and leave a surplus for export. Little 
attention has been given to the breeding of high grade 
hogs or cattle, and goats are apparently more numer- 
ous than sheep. 

The population of Cuba numbers about one and a 
half million, according to the best estimates, of which 
the negroes constitute about one-third. Slavery was 
formally abolished in 1856, but the traffic continued 
until 1886. The slave trade thrived in Cuba after it 
had been abolished in the United States, and it is said 
that a cargo of Congo negroes was sold on the island 
as late as 1878. 

The population is made up of Spaniards and their 
descendants — the former are called Spaniards and the 
latter Cubans. The Spaniards own the bulk of the 
personal property and much of the real estate, while 
the latter make up the majority of the voting popula- 
tion. During the wars which have ravaged the island 
the Cubans have suffered most because much of their 
property was confiscated or burned, while those Span- 
iards who were loyal to the government largely es- 
caped. It is estimated that the lands of the island are 
mortgaged to more than sixty-five per cent of their 
present market value, the mortgages generally being 
given for money with which to stock and improve the 
farms. During the struggle for liberty the improve- 
ments were destroyed, but the mortgages escaped 
unharmed. 



PEARL OF THE ANTILLES 145 

The Cuban people are as a rule docile, domestic, 
well-meaning and temperate. There is almost an en- 
tire absence of drunkenness. Americans admit that 
about the only evidences of intoxication they have seen 
on the island have been exhibited by the Americans. 

The education of the children was much neg- 
lected during the numerous insurrections, but in no 
respect has the island shown more marked improve- 
ment than the attention given to the instruction of the 
children. During the period of American intervention 
the number of children in attendance at schools has 
increased several hundred per cent. The governor of 
the province of Matanzas told me that in the city of 
Matanzas the number of children in school there had 
increased from twenty-five hundred to over seven 
thousand within the last five years, notwithstanding 
the large mortality among the children during the last 
war. He pointed with some pride to a large building 
which under Spanish rule was used for a jail but is 
now occupied by a public school. There is at Havana, 
also, a large building until recently used for the stor- 
age of ammunition, which is being converted into a 
great university. 

The religion of the island is Catholic, and almost 
all of the inhabitants have been baptized in that faith. 
This church has splendid houses of worship and many 
large institutions devoted to charity and benevolence. 
There is absolute freedom of religion, and most of the 
prominent Protestant denominations have representa- 
tives here. On Sunday night preceding the inaugura- 
tion of the president a union patriotic service was held 



146 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

and the pastors of all the Protestant churches took 
in the building occupied by the Congregational church, 
part. Some of these churches have established private 
schools, and these have a very satisfactory attendance. 

The difference between the country and the city is 
very marked. In the country many of the people live 
in small and scantily furnished houses, each family 
cultivating a small tract of land. There are, however, 
some very large plantations, and these, of course, have 
commodious houses and expensive mills for the ex- 
tracting of sugar from cane. In the cities the houses 
are built in solid blocks and have no yards. In the 
better houses there is usually an open court inside, but 
the population is crowded very closely together. 

Those who have not visited Mexico or some other 
Spanish country will be struck by a custom which pre- 
vails in Cuba. The family carriage is usually kept in 
the front hall and the stable is generally a part of the 
house. For instance, you will find a house costing 
from fifty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars, 
with marble floors, ceilings twenty-five feet high, and 
with large rooms, filled with elegant furniture, paint- 
ings and statuary. In the centre will be a beautiful 
court, with all kinds of tropical flowers and plants, 
watered by a costly fountain. On the first floor will 
be the living rooms, in the basement will be the kitchen 
and the servants' rooms, and adjoining a perfectly 
equipped bathroom will be found the carriage room 
and the stable. 

Havana is, of course, the city of the greatest size 
and interest. The Cubans call it Habana, although the 



PEARL OF THE ANTILLES 147 

English-speaking people of the world substitute a "v" 
for the "b." It means a haven, and the name was first 
applied to a city on the southern coast and afterward 
given to the present city. It lies on the south shore of 
Havana bay, one of the best harbors in the island. It 
is entered by a deep but narrow channel, and is so 
large and well proteted that an entire fleet can ride at 
anchor. 

The wreck of the Maine is still visible in the 
harbor, and is an object of intense interest to both 
Americans and Cubans; for to the former it recalls a 
great national bereavement, while the Cubans recog- 
nize that, horrible and lamentable as it was, it had an 
important influence in the securing of their independ- 
ence. Morro Castle guards the entrance to the harbor, 
and it is admirably situated, as well as admirably con- 
structed, for defense. It is built upon a cliff and its 
massive walls made the Spaniards feel secure from 
any foreign attack. Near by is Fort Cabanas, which is 
equally well constructed, and, having been the scene 
of the execution of many Cuban patriots, is equally in- 
teresting to the visitor. The formal transfer of the 
government from the United States to the Cuban re- 
public gave the Cubans scarcely less pleasure than the 
raising of the Cuban flag over Morro and Cabanas. 
In fact, it is said that when, on the 11th day of May, 
the president-elect landed at Havana and the Cuban 
flag v/as for a short time raised over Morro, the vet- 
erans of the prolonged wars were so affected that they 
shouted, wept and hugged each other by turns. 

Fort Principe, which crowns a natural eminence 



148 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

just back of the city of Havana, is said to be the 
strongest fortification on the Western Hemisphere. It 
was constructed for the defense of Havana and will 
accommodate a garrison of many thousands. The city 
of Havana is built upon the shore of the sea and of 
Havana bay, the ground gradually sloping back from 
the water's edge toward Port Principe. 

The streets are narrow, like the streets of Mexican 
cities, and show a reckless disregard of the points of 
the compass. The residences are nearly all one story, 
and have a window and door opening upon the street, 
the former invariably protected by iron bars or grat- 
ing. In the middle of the window is a gate which is 
unlocked in the cool of the evening, and the young 
ladies stand at the opening and watch the passers-by. 
The presence of so many beautiful faces at the win- 
dows enhances the pleasure of a drive through the 
streets at this hour of the day. The casual admirer 
must be content to talk with the senorita through the 
bars ; only an accepted suitor is admitted to the parlor, 
and even then he must do his courting in the presence 
of some older member of the family. Until the period 
of intervention the young ladies never went upon the 
street alone. Though this custom has relaxed some- 
what, it is usual even now for the mother or a chap- 
eron to accompany the daughter. 

The principal street of Havana is called the Prado, 
and leads from the point opposite Morro Castle back 
into the interior of the city. It has been very much 
improved under General Wood's direction and is now 
the most beautiful part of the city. While a consider- 



PEARL OF THE ANTILLES 149 

able sum was expended upon this improvement, the 
Cubans are very proud of it and it is the place most 
frequented in the evening. On Sundays, about sunset, 
the Prado is crowded. A contract has been given to 
an individual to furnish seats for those who desire to 
rest, and the city receives four thousand dollars a year 
for the concession. Thousands of people line this 
street, while every one who has a carriage or can hire 
one joins in the procession. On the Sunday preceding 
the inauguration the carriages were sometimes four 
abreast and the travel was so congested that it was 
difficult to drive faster than a walk. Here one can see 
Havana life in all its phases. The wealthy are out in 
splendid equipages, and those of more moderate means 
mingle with them, while on the sidewalks will be found 
a promiscuous crowd, all neatly dressed, and so peace- 
ful and orderly that no officer of the law is necessary 
to control them. 

Not far from Havana, about twelve miles to the 
southwest, at a beautiful little cove, is situated the 
house of the Havana Yacht club. It has a large mem- 
bership and furnishes a delightful place for rest and 
recuperation. The road leading from Havana to the 
yacht club passes by the cemetery and Columbia 
Barracks. 

The cemetery is an object of interest to those who 
are not acquainted with burial customs in tropical 
countries. The private vaults of the wealthy are made 
of cement and stone and are waterproof. A marble 
slab covers the grave and artificial flowers adorn the 
lot. Those who cannot afford to own a private vault 



150 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

are buried in vaults rented for a limited time, and when 
the time is up the remains are removed to the bone- 
pile if further rent is not forthcoming. The very poor 
are carried to the cemetery in a rented box and buried, 
mother earth furnishing them their only coffin. There 
are a number of beautiful monuments in the Havana 
cemetery, the most elaborate of which is one of white 
marble, erected to the memory of forty volunteer fire- 
men who lost their lives in a disastrous explosion which 
occurred some years ago. Next to the firemen's monu- 
ment in size and even surpassing it in interest is the 
pile of granite and marble reared in honor of the eight 
students who were shot by order of one of the Spanish 
generals. 

Columbia Barracks is the name given to the place 
where the American troops were encamped during the 
intervention. General Lee's army corps located the 
camp upon a beautiful knoll overlooking the sea. It 
proved to be a healthful place, and our soldiers suf- 
fered far less than it was feared they would when they 
embarked for Cuba. 

From General Wood I learned that the island has 
been entirely purged of yellow fever and that the death 
rate in Havana is now lower than in Washington, 
D. C. 

Major W. C. Gorges of the United States army, 
who has been in charge of the sanitary department, 
deserves great credit for the work that has been done 
in the matter of improving sanitary conditions in the 
island. Under his administration the mosquito theory 
was fully tested, and it was proven to the satisfaction 
of all who watched the experiment that the disease is 



PEARL OF THE ANTILLES 151 

not transmitted by contact with the yellow fever pa- 
tient but by the bite of a mosquito which has pre- 
viously bitten one having the disease. Dr. Carlos 
Finlay of Havana some twenty-one years ago brought 
this terrible indictment against the mosquito and, after 
a fair and impartial trial, it stands convicted before 
the world. 

Governor Jennings of Florida, who visited Cuba 
for the double purpose of attending the inauguration 
and of investigating the sanitary system of the island, 
was much gratified to learn of the care that is now 
taken to provide against and stamp out contagious 
diseases. Florida is so near to Cuba that his people 
are vitally interested in the subject. From him I 
learned that vaccination against smallpox has received 
especial attention in Cuba. A room is fitted up with the 
most modern scientific equipment ; expert physicians 
are in charge ; calves, first tested as to their general 
health, are vaccinated and kept under surveillance for 
five days and then placed upon a table made for the 
purpose and the bovine virus is extracted. This is 
placed in vats and, after being thoroughly prepared, is 
made into what are called points, each point containing 
sufficient virus to vaccinate five persons. One calf 
furnishes bovine virus enough to vaccinate 1,000 per- 
sons. The Havana institution furnishes virus for the 
island and the marine hospital service of the United 
States. Some idea of the magnitude of this institution 
can be gathered from the fact that 250,000 persons 
have been vaccinated on the island of Cuba within five 
months, and the care taken is shown by the fact that 
not a single case of death has resulted in all that num- 
ber of vaccinations. 



152 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

There is also at Havana a very complete disin- 
fecting plant. The United States steamer Sanator, 
especially built for ship disinfection and for handling 
of large numbers of soldiers and passengers, arrived at 
Havana during the latter part of June, 1900 ; it is the 
only disinfecting steamer in the world and is pro- 
vided with the most modern apparatus, including 
shower baths and robing and disrobing rooms suffi- 
cient to handle 1,000 persons daily. The experience 
of the army in Montauk Point in 1898 suggested many 
improvements in the matter of disinfection, and these 
suggestions have been utilized in the construction of 
this vessel. During the month of June, 1901, this 
steamer disinfected 40 passenger vessels, and 39 fishing 
smacks, making a total of 79 vessels. During the first 
fiscal year 463 vessels were disinfected, together with 
4,360 pieces of baggage. 

The public buildings of Havana are substantially 
constructed and will last for many years. The Span- 
iards had an eye to the future and built for posterity, 
therefore the official headquarters at Havana and the 
other cities are large, strong and massive. 

The prison is an immense building, and though 
ornamental in appearance is unfortunately situated on 
the Prado. The condition of the prison, by the way, 
has been much improved during American occupancy, 
a fact to which the Cubans point with muh pride and 
satisfaction. The Palace, occupied by the governor 
general during Spanish rule, is a commodious structure 
near the wharf, and Former Governor General Wood 
has made his headquarters here, as have the heads of 
the various departments of the government. 



PEARL OF THE ANTILLES 153 

When I called upon the mayor, the able and ac- 
complished Senor De la Torre, I was ushered into a 
reception room which was formerly the crown room of 
the palace. There my attention was immediately at- 
tracted by two splendid oil paintings of large size. 
One represented Cortes landing in Cuba, and the other 
the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers at Plymouth Rock. 
In the first picture the great Spanish explorer appeared 
as the central figure ; he was mounted upon a war- 
horse and around him were cannons, guns, sabres and 
chains. The second picture represented a group of 
unarmed men, women and children ; one held an open 
book, while on the ground were spade and pick and 
saw. The pictures were presented in 1867, by Senor 
Miguel de Aldama, the wealthiest Cuban of his time, 
who, a year later, was a prominent leader in the war 
begun for the independence of Cuba. The pictures 
contrast the doctrine of colonization by conquest with 
the peaceful methods employed by those who go forth 
to build a new home in a new country. There is an 
exquisite humor in the gift and the donor would have 
felt fully repaid if he could have known that those 
pictures would for thirty years mock every kingly 
gathering and utter their mute protest against arbi- 
trary power and colonel mis-government. 

Bull fighting and cock fighting have been prohib- 
ited during the intervention, and "J a i Alai," a very 
skilful ball game, has taken their place to some extent. 
But for the gambling that is encouraged by the "jai 
Alai" company the game would be deserving of praise. 

Havana is destined to be a popular winter resort 



154 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

for American tourists. It is only three and one-half 
days from New York by steamer and only little more 
than a day from southern Florida, and its climate af- 
fords a delightful retreat from the rigors of a northern 
winter. The hotels are well kept and sufficiently com- 
modious for the traveling public, but as the number 
of American tourists increases there will doubtless 
spring up other hotels built and conducted upon the 
American plan. 

The one great and overshadowing need of Havana 
is a sewerage system, and that subject is now being 
considered. It has not been thought advisable to run 
a sewer into the harbor because it has no outlet, and 
the fact that the Gulf Stream would carry into the 
harbor any refuse matter emptied along the seacoast 
makes the problem a difficult one; but that it will be 
soon solved is certain, and then no city on the Western 
Hemisphere will be more attractive to those who have 
the time and means for travel. 

To Americans Santiago is almost as interesting as 
Havana, because it was the scene of the decisive land 
engagement of the Spanish-American war as well as 
the scene of one of the two great naval battles of that 
war. The harbor of Santiago is as well protected as 
the Havana harbor, but is not so large. 

Nature has also done much for the harbors at Cien- 
fuegos and Matanzas and both are prominent shipping 
points for the exportation of sugar. There are now 
more than 150,000 tons of sugar stored in the ware- 
houses at the latter place. The harbor at Matanzas is 
an open one, but large vessels anchor in deep water 
about a mile from the wharf and have no difficulty in 



PEARL OF THE ANTILLES 155 

loading and unloading from lighters. Like Havana, 
the city draws it water supply from springs, and, lying 
upon the side of a hill, it can be more easily drained. 
Captain Hay of the United States army, who was in 
charge of the military government as well as the cus- 
tom house at that place, says that Matanzas is now 
the cleanest city he has ever seen. He is also author- 
ity for the statement that the Cubans are law-abiding 
and very easy to get along with. There is near Matan- 
zas the famous valley of the Yumuri, an excellent view 
of which is obtained from the old church of Montserrat, 
situated on a high hill near the city. There is said to 
be no more beautiful view on the island, and for that 
matter it would be difficult to find a more pleasing one 
anywhere. The caves of Bellamar, about three miles 
from Matanzas, are also highly praised. 

The Isle of Pines, which lies just south of Cuba 
and is still held by the United States, subject to final 
settlement by treaty, is said to be the healthiest of the 
West India islands. Much of the land of the island has 
been bought by Americans, and several English- 
speaking communities have already been established 
there. 






THE BIRTH OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC. 

"Viva Cuba Libre!" "Viva la Republica de 
Cuba !" These were the exclamations of delight and 
of patriotism with which the Cuban people greeted 
the 20th day of May, 1902, the day upon which the 
American government of intervention formally trans- 
ferred authority to the newly formed Cuban govern- 
ment. 

For days the city of Havana had been busy with 
preparations for the great event. Fifty thousand dol- 
lars had been contributed by the citizens and spent in 
decorations. Triumphal arches towered above the 
streets ; large Cuban flags floated from the flagstaff's of 
the business blocks and little flags fluttered from bam- 
boo poles ; streamers covered the buildings and pa- 
triotic mottoes and pictures of dead heroes recalled the 
struggle of more than thirty years, so full of sacrifice 
and so replete with valor, just now culminating in a 
glorious victory. Everywhere were evidences of joy 
and exultation. 

From the time the president-elect landed at the 
wharf of Havana the people were in a state of sup- 
pressed excitement, impatiently waiting the hour for 
which they had looked and longed. The most notable 
event of the week preceding the inauguration was the 
banquet tendered by the Cuban veterans to Governor 
General Wood on Friday evening, May 16. General 
Maximo Gomez, the greatest of Cuban generals, the 

156 



BIRTH OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC 157 

hero of the war for independence, the idol of the 
Cuban patriots and the trusted friend of the new presi- 
dent, sat at the head of the table. On his left was 
President-elect Tomas Estrada Palma and on his right 
General Leonard A. Wood. At the same table sat the 
principal military and civil officials of Cuba, mingled 
with the officers of the United States army. The ban- 
quet tables were made to form a shield and occupied 
the entire floor of the Tacon Theatre, while the five 
galleries of that splendid auditorium were crowded 
with ladies and gentlemen in evening dress. The 
banqueters below and the spectators above presented 
a combination of bravery and beauty ever to be re- 
membered. 

General Gomez being a man of action rather than 
of words, called upon Senor Gonzalo de Quesada to 
act as toastmaster, and that the latter discharged his 
duty well was evident from the manner in which his 
introductions were greeted. Brief speeches were made 
by Senor Mario Garcia Kohly, General Fernando 
Freyre Andrade and myself. Then Governor General 
Wood was presented, and the entire audience arose 
and stood while he expressed in modest but felicitous 
language his appreciation of the courtesies shown him 
and his good wishes for the Cuban republic. It was 
an inspiring scene, the like of which has been rare in 
the world's history — the representative of a great and 
powerful government voluntarily surrendering into the 
hands of a comparatively small nation an authority 
that might have been withheld had the United States 
been actuated by the motives which control most na- 
tions that go to war. It was an act of magnanimity and 



158 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

of fidelity to principle that raised higher the flag about 
to be lowered — it was a moral victory more potent for 
good than any triumph of arms. 

General Wood has had a difficult task, and while 
mistakes have been made and an occasional criticism 
is heard, these are outweighed by the positive good 
that has been done. 

The Teller resolution, which was added to the 
resolution of intervention, contained the following 
words : 

"That the United States hereby disclaims any dis- 
position or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdic- 
tion or control over said island except for the pacifica- 
tion thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is 
accomplished, to leave the government and control of 
the island to its people." 

If any American citizen has regretted the making 
of that promise or has favored its violation he would 
have been converted had he attended the banquet given 
by the veterans on Friday evening. He would have 
learned that love is better than homage and that our 
nation enjoys a greater reward than it could possibly 
have secured by conquest or violence. 

On the Saturday night following the banquet 
General Wood gave a farewell reception in the same 
theatre, with President Palma as the guest of honor. 
An immense crowd was in attendance. On the same 
evening the leading Spanish society of the city cele- 
brated the coronation of Spain's young king by a grand 
ball in the Casino Espanol. Here, amid the waving of 



MIRTH OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC 159 

Spanish flags and the perfume of tropical flowers, the 
elite of the Spanish element met and drank the health 
of Alfonso XIII. 

At midnight on the 19th the bells rang, the en- 
gines and boats whistled, cannons fired and each per- 
son seemed to try to make more noise than his neigh- 
bor. From that time on, for several days the city was 
given over to rejoicing and to the heartiest manifesta- 
tions of delight. Firecrackers were exploded every- 
where, and that, too, with a recklessness that would 
have done credit to the American small boy. 

When the Spaniards evacuated Havana the beau- 
tiful statue of Queen Isabella, which stood in the cen- 
tre of the most prominent park, was taken down, 
but the pedestal was left standing. The Cubans, to 
signalize the change which had taken place in their 
government, secured a statue such as is used in the 
United States to represent the Goddess of Liberty and, 
on the forenoon of the 20th, this statue was placed up- 
on the pedestal. The crowds that surged by it noted 
and commented on the transformation that had taken 
place in the ideas for which their government stood. 
At night a light was placed in the uplifted hand of the 
goddess, and the Western Hemisphere beheld a new 
"Liberty, enlightening the world." 

As the hour of noon approached the human tide 
that had ebbed and flowed through the streets began 
to form a stream, and this stream, passing through 
Central Park, divided, one part going in the direction 
of the Palace, where the formal transfer of the govern- 
ment was to take place, and the other passing down 
the Prado to the point opposite Morro Castle. 



160 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

The American soldiers occupied the Placa de 
Armas just in front of the palace and kept clear the 
street between. The people filled all the other streets 
around, and looked down from windows and from the 
roofs of the neighboring buildings. 

In the reception room of the palace gathered those 
who by special invitation were permitted to witness 
the simple ceremony which preceded the retirement of 
General Wood and the inauguration of President 
Palma. The room was not a large one and the number 
of persons admitted did not exceed one hundred and 
fifty or two hundred. The members of the cabinet, 
members of the supreme court, members of the Cuban 
congress, the archbishop of Cuba and his escort, the 
governors of the various provinces, mayors, magis- 
trates, and a few officers of the American army and 
navy, with members of the diplomatic corps, news- 
paper men and less than a score of others gathered 
about the centre of the room. 

I found that but few Americans outside of the 
military and naval officials were present. Senator 
James K. Jones of Arkansas, chairman of the demo- 
cratic national committee ; Senator Money of Missis- 
sippi and his son, Senator Mason of Illinois and wife, 
ex-Senator Thurston of Nebraska and wife, Congress- 
man DeArmond of Missouri, Governor Jennings of 
Florida, his wife and son, a few without title and the 
photographers represented unofficial America. That 
the United States, which appointed three special en- 
voys to witness the coronation of Edward VII. of 
England and one special envoy to witness the coron- 



BIRTH OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC 161 

ation of Alfonso XIII. of Spain, had no envoy to tes- 
tify to the interest which our people felt in the birth of 
a republic whose very existence was due to American 
intervention, was a fact frequently commented upon 
by both Cubans and resident Americans. 

At about five minutes before twelve Governor 
General Wood and President-elect Tomas Estrada 
Palma took their positions in the center of the room. 
General Wood inquired for General Gomez, and a 
messenger having been sent to bring him from the 
rear of the room, he was asked to take a position next 
to the president. These three, together with the 
president's secretary, constituted the inner group. In 
a circle just outside this group stood Captain Scott, 
the adjutant general of the department of Cuba, the 
members of the supreme court, senate and congress 
and the archbishop, while crowding around these 
without regard to position were the remaining guests, 
each anxious to be near enough to hear the words 
spoken by the principal participants. Mrs. Palma and 
family stood a few feet to the rear of the president and 
General Wood, while General Wood's wife and the 
other ladies of the company occupied vantage ground 
near the windows. 

Just at twelve a cannon shot fired at one of 
the forts startled the audience. It was followed by 
another roar and then by another. Then the whistles 
of the ships lying at anchor in the harbor began to 
blow, and the crowd outside, thinking the transfer 
had taken place, commenced to cheer. In the midst 
of this babel of noise General Wood read a brief paper 
to President Palma, stating that in the name and by 



162 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

authority of the American government he relinquished 
authority over the island and surrendered it into the 
keeping of the new government to be administered 
in accordance with the constitution adopted by the 
people of Cuba and the Piatt amendment. He then 
read a letter from President Roosevelt extending con- 
gratulations to President Palma and expressing his 
good wishes for the success and prosperity of the re- 
public. General Wood then with a faltering voice as- 
sured President Palma of his appreciation of the 
courtesies shown him and of his sincere regard and 
good will for the new government and the Cuban peo- 
ple, and with this American occupation ended. 

The president read from manuscript, written in 
Spanish his acceptance of the responsibilities of the 
office and, speaking for his government, promised to 
fulfill the terms imposed. Then in English he replied 
in a few heartfelt words to General Wood's farewell. 
General Wood extended his hand and, after a cordial 
greeting, the president turned to the chief justice, 
took the oath of office and then modestly received and 
acknowledged the congratulations showered upon him. 

As soon as General Wood ceased speaking the 
American flag on the palace was lowered and the 
Cuban flag raised in its place amid the acclamation of 
the multitude. Simultaneously with the lowering of 
the flag on the palace building the flags that floated 
from the other government buildings were hauled 
down and Cuban flags quickly substituted for them. 
The crowd at the end of the Prado raised a mighty 
shout when the stars and stripes on Morro Castle 
came down and the single-star Cuban flag was flung 



BIRTH OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC 163 

to the breeze ; and yet, happy as they were, there was 
a touch of sadness in their rejoicing, for they had come 
to love the American flag. A member of the com- 
mission charged with the changing of the flags on 
Morro Castle — that grim fortress that had been the 
scene of so much cruelty and bloodshed — told me that 
when the American flag was lowered the Cuban sol- 
diers stationed at that place rushed forward and 
caught it up, saying that it must not be allowed to 
touch the ground — they even pressed its folds to their 
lips. The Americans present were deeply touched by 
the affection displayed, and well they might be. 

As soon as the ceremonies were completed at 
the palace General Wood and his staff officers, accom- 
panied by the president, his cabinet, the members of 
the court and congress, and other officials, marched 
behind the escort to the wharf. The Spanish word 
"viva," which means "live," is used in the same way 
as our word "hurrah," and as the procession moved 
toward the boat the crowd waved and cheered "Viva 
General Wood," "Viva Presidente Palma," "Viva la 
Republica Americana," "Viva Cuba libre." All were 
proposed and given with equal fervor. In fact, the 
good will entertained for the Americans was apparent 
on every hand, no partialitv being shown in the salu- 
tations and exclamations. 

Having seen the Americans safely aboard the 
Brooklyn, which carried General Wood and his staff, 
and the Morro Castle, which carried the soldiers, 
President Palma and his cabinet returned to the pal- 
ace and held a consultation : but the people lingered 



164 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

on the Prado until the ships passed through the chan- 
nel out into the sea and then waved a farewell to the 
government that had entered Cuba as a friend, with- 
stood the temptations which come with the exercise of 
power and, as soon as a stable government was estab- 
lished removed the flag from the island, only to leave 
it enshrined in the hearts of the people. 

President Palma is small in statue, 'but large in 
experience, capacity and patriotism. He is a man of 
education, refinement and wide acquaintance. He 
took part in the war of 1868, and was one of the early 
presidents of the government then formed. He was 
taken prisoner and was in a Spanish fortress when 
the treaty of 1878 was signed. His release was 
finally secured at the request of the republic of Hon- 
duras, where he had resided for a few years ; but he 
had no faith in the promises made by Spain, 
and when he left the prison it was with the 
determination not to return to Cuba until she 
was an independent nation. After a brief so- 
journ in Honduras, where he married the daughter 
of the president of that republic, he moved to the 
United States and located at Central Valley, N. Y. 
There he established his home and reared his family, 
occupying his time and securing some income by 
teaching school. When he entered the war for inde- 
pendence a large estate which he owned was con- 
fiscated by the Spanish government, and this was aft- 
erward offered to him if he would return to Cuba and 
take the oath of allegiance, but he was so earnest in 
his desire to secure Cuban independence that he de- 
clined. 



BIRTH OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC 165 

He was, however, in constant communication 
with the people of the island, and when the new in- 
surrection was started in 1895 he became the head of 
the American junta, and it was largely through his 
wise and persistent efforts that the people of the 
United States were brought to understand the condi- 
tion of affairs in the island. He is called from his long 
exile to be crowned with the honor of being Cuba's 
first chief executive. 

I have become sufficiently acquainted with the 
man to be convinced of his greatness and goodness, 
and in congratulating him I expressed the hope, which 
I believe to be well founded, that his influence upon 
his people may be as far-reaching and as potent for 
good as the influence exerted by our first president 
upon the American people. 

The president has selected a strong and represen- 
tative cabinet ; Carlos Zaldo of Havana will be min- 
ister of state and justice. He is a leader of the radi- 
cal wing of the democratic-republican party, which 
opposed adoption of the Piatt amendment to the con- 
stitution of Cuba and opposed Palma for president un- 
til his opponent (Masso) had withdrawn from the 
race. Senor Zaldo is a lawyer and member of the 
Cuban-American banking house of Zaldo & Co. 

The minister of the interior will be Dr. Tamayo, 
a doctor and member of the nationalist or military 
party (headed by General Maximo Gomez) from 
which both Brooke and Wood drew most of their 
cabinet material. Dr. Tamayo is a cousin to President 



166 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Palma. He is the only member of General Wood's 
regime retained in office by the new executive in 
making up his cabinet. 

Minister of Finance Garcia Montes, republican, 
is a lawyer and friend of General Mendez-Capote, un- 
der whom he served as a sub-secretary in the Brooke 
cabinet. Montes' appointment to the head of the 
finance department under the new republic is attribut- 
ed almost solely to the personal influence of Capote. 
The latter voted for the Piatt amendment. 

The minister of agriculture, commerce and in- 
dustries will be Emilo Terry, the millionaire sugar 
planter of central Cuba. He is also one of the lead- 
ing bankers of Cienfuegos. 

Minister of Public Instruction Eduardo Yero is 
a disciple of Jose Marti, former editor of the junta 
newspaper "Patria," in New York city; recently con- 
nected with the Cuban school system as a superinten- 
dent under Commissioners Frye and Hanna. He is 
a man of excellent educational qualifications. 

Minister of Public Works Manuel Luciano Diaz 
is a Spaniard, and engineer and former railway super- 
intendent. 

That the people of Cuba are capable of self-gov- 
ernment is not a question open for dispute. Henr^ 
Clay declared, in his defence of the independence of 
the South American republics, that God never made 
a people incapable of self-government; that it was the 
doctrine of thrones and a reflection on Jehovah to say 
that He created people incapable of self-government 
and left them tothe government of kings and emperors. 
Clay's logic is sound. Capacity for government is 



BIRTH OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC 167 

not a thing to be acquired or to be bestowed ; it is in- 
herent in the people. As individuals differ in wisdom, 
in self-restraint and in moral character, so nations 
differ, but it cannot be said that any nation has 
reached perfection in the science of government or in 
the art of administration ; neither can it be said that 
any nation is so low down in the scale of civilization 
that it needs a foreign master. When Jefferson was 
invited to suggest laws for a French colony which lo- 
cated in the United States early in the nineteenth cen- 
tury, he declined, and gave as his reason that laws 
were the outgrowth of the history and habits of the 
people and that no alien could be sufficiently in sym- 
pathy with, or sufficiently informed about, a people to 
make their laws for them. Self-government is in itself 
a developing process and growth in capacity comes 
with the exercise of human rights under self-govern- 
ment. But one who visits Cuba and becomes acquaint- 
ed with the people need not rest the case upon ab- 
stract principles, for he is convinced by observation 
that the Cubans not only have the right to govern 
themselves but also have the ability to do so. That they 
will make mistakes is certain, but have we not made 
mistakes in the United States ? That they may some- 
times resort to violence instead of reason is possible, 
but have we not done so in the United States? It is 
even possible that the island may occasionally be the 
scene of civil war, but have we not had civil war in 
the United States? The child will stumble and fall 
in its effort to walk, but is there any other means by 
which it can learn to walk? 



168 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Cuban independence will not give the people a 
government free from fault, but it will give them a 
government as good as they deserve to have — a gov- 
ernment that will improve as the people themselves 
make progress in virtue and intelligence. Free gov- 
ernment does not mean that each citizen will have just 
such a government as he wants ; it simply means that 
the people will have such a government as the ma- 
jority desire, and that each individual can present 
his views to his fellows with the confidence that what- 
ever is best for all will ultimately prevail. 

Several important questions will require imme- 
diate consideration. The question of sanitation will, 
of course, receive the attention of the new govern- 
ment; for Cuba cannot afford to be shut out from the 
outside world, and it cannot expect communication 
between the island and the United States unless that 
communication can be carried on without risk of dis- 
ease. 

Education is a problem of the first magnitude. 
While private and parochial schools can do much, 
the public schools must place education within the 
reach of every child and thus fit all for more intelli- 
gent participation in the affairs of the government. 
The deep and widespread interest already manifested 
in the improvement of school facilities gives great 
encouragement for the future. 

It should be the policy of the government to en- 
courage home building and home owning. Until hu- 
man nature is entirely changed men will give better 
care and cultivation to land which they own than to 



BIRTH OF THE CUBAN REPUBLIC 169 

land which they rent. The stimulus that one finds h? 
the sense of proprietorship is indispensable to the 
highest effort. To this end the growth of great estates 
should be discouraged and a wider distribution of the 
land encouraged. 

Saving should also be encouraged and to this 
end government savings banks would be useful. 

The government must be careful to avoid the 
evils of private monopoly. Man is too frail to be in- 
trusted with the power which a monopoly gives, and 
the president and his advisers should be on their 
guard against the dangers which come with the grant- 
ing of franchises and concessions for the control of 
any branch of business. The government of interven- 
tion has reserved to the Cuban government the right 
to cancel and annul all franchises granted during the 
temporary occupancy of the island. It will thus be 
within the power of the permanent government to 
make such conditions and impose such restrictions as 
may seem necessary, and it is to be hoped that means 
will be taken at once to protect the rights of the 
people. 

In the procession which escorted President-elect 
Palma to his home when he retured from exile, a 
number of Cuban ladies represented the republics of 
the Western Hemisphere, the United States being the 
eldest, Cuba the youngest of the group. It reminded 
me of the great banyan tree under which our party 
rested for a moment as we passed through Key West ; 
for are not these republics much like the banyan tree? 
Free government was planted upon American soil a 
century and a quarter ago ; it grew and sent forth its 



170 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

influence like branches in every direction, and these 
branches taking root now support the parent tree; 
beneath the influence of these republics, separate in 
their government and yet united in their aspirations 
an ever-increasing multitude finds shelter and pro- 
tection. Long live the national banyan tree — the 
American republics ! 



Mexico 



The article describing the first visit to Mexico was written for and 

copyrighted by the New York World, and is reproduced 

by courtesy of that newspaper. The article describing 

the second visit was written for The Commoner 



MEXICO. 

The First Visit. 

The reading which I did preparatory to my visit 
to Mexico revealed to me how little I had known of 
the history of that country, past and current. In this 
connection I acknowledge my indebtedness to Senor 
Romero, the Mexican Minister at Washington, for 
advanced proofs of his book just issuing from the 
press, descriptive of Mexico at the present time. Senor 
Romero, besides being a student of great industry and 
research, is thoroughly familiar with our language, 
and his book will be of great value to both republics 
in that it gives to the people of the United States full 
and authentic information with regard to our neigh- 
bor on the south. The readers of The World may be 
interested in a brief reference to some of the facts 
which came under my observation during a three 
weeks' stay in the land of the Aztecs. 

I found: 

First — That Mexico is a delightful place to visit. 
Travel on the main lines is as safe, as comfortable and 
as cheap as in the United States. The City of Mexico 
is within four days' ride of Kansas City, and can be 
reached by three routes. The Mexican National 
leaves the Rio Grande at Laredo, the International at 
Eagle Pass and the Mexican Central at El Paso. 

The weather is dry and pleasant during the win- 
181 



182 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

ter months, and the temperature high enough to be 
inviting to those who find the cold of the North too 
rigorous. The descent from the City of Mexico to 
Vera Cruz can be made between sunrise and sunset, 
and in the course of the day the traveller has an op- 
portunity to compare the flora of two zones. As 
both the Mexican and the Interoceanic Railroads con- 
nect the capital with this seaport, the tourist is en- 
abled to vary the scenery without loss of time. The 
new railroad which is building from the City of Mex- 
ico to Acapulco rises twenty-five hundred feet 
almost within sight of the City of Mexico, and then 
drops five thousand feet to Cuernavaca, the present 
terminus. The three snow-crowned peaks, Popocata- 
petl and Izteccihuatl and Orizaba, are mag- 
nificent mountains. Popocatapetl and Iztecci- 
huatl are near the City of Mexico . The first- 
named, the largest of the three, presents the best 
view from Cuernavaca. All three can be seen from a 
point on the Interoceanic road, near Pueblo. Cathe- 
drals built before the landing of the Pilgrims, huge 
public buildings, differing entirely in architecture 
from our own ; unique Chapultepec, a national art gal- 
lery filled with rare and valuable paintings, and a 
museum containing innumerable relics of a civiliza- 
tion which antedates the discovery of the continent 
by Europeans — all these combine to interest and in- 
struct. 3 

Second — That while our nation has more inhabi- 
tants, covers more territory and possesses greater 
wealth, we cannot surpass the Mexicans in hospi- 



MEXICO— FIRST VISIT 183 

tality or in the courtesy which they extend to 
strangers. 

Third — That the Mexican authorities entertain a 
very friendly feeling towards the citizens of the United 
States, and heartily desire a continuation of the amic- 
able relations now existing between the two nations. 

Fourth — That Mexico is as firm as the United 
States in the support of the Monroe doctrine, having 
realized only thirty years ago the dangers attendant 
upon an attempt to extend monarchical institutions 
upon the western hemisphere. 

Fifth — That President Diaz is entirely deserving 
of the enconiums bestowed upon him by his own peo- 
ple, by resident Americans and by visitors. He has 
a genius for public affairs, understands the conditions 
and needs of his people, and has their confidence to a 
degree seldom enjoyed by an executive, either her- 
editary or elective. While the advantages of a stable 
government are now so generally recognized that his 
death or resignation would not disturb the existing 
order of things, yet his qualifications have been so 
amply proved and his administration so completely 
successful that his people are unanimous in the hope 
that he may yet enjoy many years of official life. 

Hidalgo, the warrior priest, who led the move- 
ment which resulted in independence, is called the 
Mexican Washington ; Juarez, who successfully de- 
fended his country against Maxmilian, was the second 
great Mexican leader of the Nineteenth century; 
President Diaz, himself a brave general, by restoring 
order, establishing the supremacy of the civil law and 



184 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

perfecting the system of public education, has earned 
for himself, and will enjoy in history, a place by the 
side of Hidalgo and Juarez. 

Sixth — That the public men of Mexico are not in- 
ferior to our own in intelligence, education and gen- 
eral information. Senor Mariscal, secretary of foreign 
affairs, adds to great ability a long experience as a dip- 
lomat, and is worthy of comparison with the pre- 
miers of the leading nations of the world. Senor 
Limantaur, secretary of finance, is a most accom- 
plished gentlman and has exhibited superior skill in 
the management of the fiscal affairs of the republic. 
The other cabinet officers, governors, members of the 
national and state congresses, mayors etc., whom I 
met were, without exception, men of refinement and 
scholarly attainments. 

Seventh — That the English language is being 
taught more and more extensively each year, and is 
now understood and spoken by most of the public 
men or by members of their families. I was in- 
formed that a majority of the members of the federal 
congress could understand a speech delivered in our 
language. The leading hotels and stores have clerks 
who can speak English, so that travel and traffic are 
made easy. 

Eighth — Mexico is making substantial progress 
in education. The public schools are free and atten- 
dance is compulsory. The president and those asso- 
ciated with him in authority are putting forth every 
possible effort to improve the system of instruction 
and to bring all the children under the influence of 



MEXICO— FIRST VISIT 185 

the school-teacher. As an illustration, in the state 
of Mexico the number of schools has increased more 
than 100 per cent, within the last ten years, and the 
number of pupils in attendance shows an equal in- 
crease. The girls and boys enter school upon an equal 
footing, and the ambition of the pupil is stimulated 
by the offer of rewards for merit. 

It was our good fortune to be invited to witness 
the distribution of prizes for the schools of the Fed- 
eral District. Nothing impressed me more than the 
scene here presented. President Diaz delivered the 
awards to several hundred boys and girls. The In- 
dian and the Spaniard, the rich and the poor, all min- 
gle together in the public schools and vie with each 
other for the prizes. The state not only furnishes in- 
struction in the elementary branches, but provides in- 
dustrial training for both boys and girls, normal 
schools for teachers and professional schools for stu- 
dents of law and medicine. President Diaz recently 
quoted a remark made by Von Moltke in praise of 
the German school-teacher and also pointed out the 
necessity for educated mothers. He recognizes, as 
did Jefferson, that popular education is vital in a re- 
public, and largely through his efforts Mexico sees a 
yearly increase in the number of those who are capa- 
ble of intelligent participation in government. 

Ninth — That the free coinage of silver is entirely 
satisfactory to the people of Mexico. They have had 
a chance to test the system thoroughly and to com- 
pare it with the systems of the United States, En- 
gland, France and Germany, and I found no disposi- 



186 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

tion either among the officials or among the people 
to favor the gold standard. The Federal Government 
pays about six millions annually on gold obligations, 
and while it is compelled to collect over twelve mil- 
lions in silver to cover this interest account, it has 
no difficulty in doing so, because of the prosperous 
condition of the nation's industries. The Government 
is not only meeting its expenses, but has a surplus. 
In Mexico the producers of wealth have not encount- 
ered the disastrous fall in prices which has afflicted all 
the gold-standard countries since 1873. While ex- 
change has fluctuated, the fluctuation has only affected 
foreign trade, and that fluctuation, while of small im- 
portance when compared with the great advantage of 
maintaining the level of prices, will entirely disap- 
pear when the parity between gold and silver is re- 
stored. 

I found quite a number of Mexicans who went 
so far as to express the hope that the United States 
would continue the gold standard because of the ad- 
vantage which Mexican manufacturers find in a high 
rate of exchange, but the majority of the people with 
whom I talked desire the restoration of bimetallism in 
the United States in order that stability in exchange 
may be added to stability in prices. 

The United States has had the gold standard for 
twenty-three years, and the system has proved so un- 
satisfactory that at the last election six million and a 
half of voters expressed a desire for independent bi- 
metallism, while seven millions cast their votes for 
candidates pledged to international bimetallism. The 



MEXICO— FIRST VISIT 187 

gold standard has been so disastrous that even a Re- 
publican Administration is asking foreign nations to 
help us to get rid of it. The people of Mexico could 
adopt the gold standard if they desired to do so, and 
yet no considerable number of them wish to abandon 
silver. 

Tenth — That Mexico is more prosperous today 
than every before. Her industries are increasing in 
number and importance. Near Orizaba is a cotton 
mill of immense proportions. The company operates 
eighteen thousand looms and seventy thousand spin- 
dles. The plant has earned more than 16 per 
cent, a year on the capital stock during the last five 
years, has been enlarged at the rate of more than 10 
per cent, per annum during that time, and the com- 
pany is preparing to add five hundred looms and 
twelve thousand spindles this year. At San Luis 
Potosi I found a cotton factory owned by an Ameri- 
can. The proprietor told me that he had been enlarg- 
ing his plant and found the business profitable. I 
went through a new cotton factory at Monterey and 
learned of a large mill now under construction at 
Guadalajara. There are a number of cotton mills also 
in the neighborhood of Pueblo. 

The manufacture of woollen goods, the manufac- 
ture of hats, the manufacture of boots and shoes and 
the brewing of beer are all growing industries. The 
silk industry is in its infancy, but a Frenchman has 
planted over three million mulberry trees in the State 
of Guanajuato within the last few years and is much 
encouraged over the success thus far achieved. I vis- 



188 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

ited a silk factory which he had recently opened in 
the suburbs of the City of Mexico. 

The premium on gold has acted as a wall to keep 
out foreign competition and at the same time has giv- 
en a substantial bounty upon exports. While I was 
in Mexico the gold premium varied from $1.05 to 
$1.15, and I shall therefore take $1.10 as an average. 
In 1873 the Mexican dollar commanded a premium of 
about three cents over our gold dollar. At that time 
a yard of cloth worth a dollar in the United States or 
Europe, when imported by Mexico, would be worth 
about 97 cents in Mexican money, plus transportation 
and tariff. Now, with gold at a premium of $1.10, a 
yard of cloth worth a dollar in the United States or 
Europe is worth $2.10 in Mexican money, plus trans- 
portation and tariff. Where the gold price has fallen 
one half, the Mexican price is about the same that it 
was in 1873. 

On the other hand, those who export from Mexico 
have a great advantage over competitors living in 
gold-standard countries. For instance, a coffee raiser 
in Mexico, because of the rise in exchange, has fared 
much better than the planter who has cultivated coffee 
on a gold basis and who has found his income di- 
minishing while his debts and fixed charges refused to 
fall. One of the gold men of my own State has laid 
aside his political scruples sufficiently to invest in a 
large tract of land near Tampico, upon which he is 
planting the coffee berry. He is not the only Ameri- 
can citizen who is seeking in Mexico the prosperity 
for which he voted in the United States. 



MEXICO— FIRST VISIT 189 

The cotton mills of Mexico now consume more 
cotton than Mexico produces, but the acreage is in- 
creasing. If, as some expect, they find it possible to 
produce upon Mexican soil all the cotton needed by 
their mills, the Mexicans will become dangerous com- 
petitors of the gold-standard countries. At present 
they are handicapped by having to import so large a 
proportion of their raw material. In reply to the 
argument that is sometimes made, namely, that we 
can protect our manufacturers by still higher duties, I 
contend that we can only do so by increasing the dis- 
advantage under which American farmers now labor. 
The lot of our farmer is hard enough when the price 
of what he buys falls in the same proportion as the 
price of his own product, because even then his taxes, 
debts and other fixed charges do not fall. If, however, 
we maintain the price of manufactured goods by a 
high tariff, the burdens of the farmer will be so in- 
creased as to make his. ultimate bankruptcy certain. 

I might mention in this connection that I found 
many of our protected manufacturers selling their 
wares in Mexico in competition with their European 
rivals. At one store I found lamps and lamp chim- 
neys made in Missouri, hammers and shovels made 
in Philadelphia, cutlery made in Massachusetts, also 
Yale locks ; Disston saws and hinges made in the 
United States. California wines and canned fruits 
and Chicago canned meats find a market in Mexico. 
At Guanajuato is a theatre, recently completed, the 
structural iron of which came from the United States. 
At several places I saw electrical apparatus of Ameri- 



190 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

an construction. In many instances an additional dis- 
count is given by American manufacturers upon ex- 
ported goods. 

Eleventh — That wages are not only higher on an 
average than ever before, but still rising. Progress or 
retrogression can be determined only by comparing 
the present with the past. The condition of the lab- 
oring classes in Mexico can be improved, but it is a 
fact that they are in better condition than they were 
in 1873, when the Mexican dollar was worth more than 
our gold dollar, and I believe that their condition is 
much better today than it would have been if Mexico 
had adopted the gold standard when the United 
States did. It is not fair to compare the wages in 
one country with the wages in another country with- 
out first making allowance for differences in effic- 
iency, differences in climatic conditions, differences in 
habits, &c. 

Even within the boundaries of our own country 
there are differences too great to be ignored. During 
President Harrison's Administration Secretary Rusk 
issued a document entitled, "Wages of Farm Labor in 
the United States" (Report No. 4, year 1892). Page 
16 of this report contains a table showing that in 1892 
the average wages for farm labor (without board) 
was $12.50 per month in South Carolina, $13.30 in 
North Carolina, $13.50 in Georgia and $13.75 in 
Alabama, while in California the wages paid were 
$36.50 and in the State of Washington $37. 50, the 
average for all the states for that year being $18.60. 
For farm labor, with board, the wages varied from 
$8.40 to $25 and averaged $12.54. 



MEXICO— FIRST VISIT 191 

The report says that white farm labor in the 
United States received $282 per annum ; that the same 
labor received about $150 in Great Britain and $90 in 
Germany. I refer to this report beause it was 
issued by Republican authority and shows that under 
the operation of the same financial system and the 
same tariff system farm labor received three times as 
much in one part of the Union as it did in another 
part. When it is remembered that the wages paid 
in each state were ascertained by averages, it will be 
seen that the differencebetween the best-paid labor and 
the poorest-paid labor is still greater. The report also 
shows that in the United States Caucasian farm labor 
receives more than three times as much as the same 
labor receives in Germany, although both countries 
have a gold standard and a protetive tariff. Between 
1816 and 1834 England had a gold standard and the 
United States had a double standard, with silver as the 
money in common use, and yet laboring men were bet- 
ter off here than in England. Turkey is one of the 
gold-standard nations, and Japan, until recently, 
coined silver at a ratio almost identical with ours, and 
yet the progress of Japan was so great that Mr. 
Cleveland commented upon it in a message during his 
second term. The gold-standard advocate who would 
consider it unfair to compare Japan and Turkey does 
not hesitate to blame silver for the low wages of the 
peons of Mexico. 

In all the leading cities of Mexico can be found 
people from the United States, England, Germany and 
France — all drawn from gold-standard countries by 



192 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

the advantages offered in Mexico. Few have gone 
from the United States to Canada, where they have 
the gold standard and speak the English language, but 
in Mexico, where an American citizen is compelled to 
learn an entirely new language, there are already sev- 
eral American colonies, and the number is constantly 
increasing. Some are in business for themselves, some 
working for wages, and they stay there, although they 
are at liberty to return whenever they see an oppor- 
tunity to better their condition in the United States. 

Twelfth — Real estate is rising in Mexico. Public 
and private improvements are in progress. Guadalajara 
one of the largest cities of the republic and surpassed 
by none in beauty, has recently decided to put in a 
complete system of sewerage and water-works. The 
work of constructing the sewers was let to a New 
Jersey contractor last month. Monterey has recently 
laid considerable brick pavement and the capital has 
nearly completed a sewerage tunnel through a moun- 
tain range. Electricity is taking the place of the old- 
time street lantern, the shoe is gradually supplanting 
the sandal and the coat is winning against the serape. 

It would be unfair to give to Mexico's financial 
policy credit for all the progress which the country has 
made in the last twenty-five years. Her Government 
and her Government officials have contributed much to 
her development by giving security to life, protection 
to property and stimulus to education. If the advo- 
cates of the gold standard insist that her financial sys- 
tem has been a hindrance and that she has gone for- 
ward not because of it but in spite of it, I reply that 



MEXICO— FIRST VISIT 193 

my observation, as well as my reason, leads me to be- 
lieve that the use of silver has been of material advan- 
tage to Mexico, and I am more than ever convinced 
that the best interests of our own people demand the 
immediate restoration of the free and unlimited coin- 
age of gold and silver at the present legal ratio of 16 
to 1 without waiting for the aid or consent of any other 
nation. 

Mexico is not strong enough to maintain the par- 
ity between the metals, but the people of the United 
States are. Mexico has by the use of silver avoided 
the fall in prices, but has suffered to a certain extent 
from the fluctuations in exchange. By opening our 
mints to the free coinage of silver we too shall escape 
from falling prices, and, by maintaining the parity, we 
shall, in addition, avoid fluctuation in exchange. 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— MEXICO. 
Second Visit. 

Have you ever visited the land of the Aztecs? If 
not you have a treat in store for you. And even those 
who have been there before find themselves unable to 
resist the temptation to return occasionally to enjoy 
again the fascinating beauty of the scenery and to 
note the progress which the young republic to the 
south of us is making. 

Having spent the holidays in Mexico I feel that 
the reader will pardon me for devoting a few columns 
to the subject — even more, he will expect it. Nowhere 
in the world can the tourist find so much variety in so 
limited a territory, and no country offers to the Ameri- 
can so much of interest and of education at so small 
an expense. The Aztec ruins alone would repay a 
visit. They furnish conclusive proof of a civilization 
far in advance of that reached by the Indians farther 
north. Relics are being dug up constantly. We 
brought back to confound the republicans an Aztec 
god with gold and silver ornaments, showing that 
both metals were appreciated by the native Americans 
before the republican party was organized. There is 
about sixteen times as much silver as gold on the 
idol. While in the hot country near Tierra Blancha 
we dug into a mound and found numerous pieces of 
crockery and parts of figures. 

194 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— MEXICO 195 

The Santa Fe railroad makes connections at Mil- 
ano, Tex., with the International, and that road pass- 
ing through Austin and San Antonio connects with 
the Mexican National at Laredo. The Mexican Na» 
tional is the main line to Monterey, the most Ameri- 
can of the Mexican cities, situated only 168 miles from 
the Rio Grande. Saltillo, the capital of Coahuila, one 
of the richest of the mining states, San Luis Potosi, 
one of the largest cities of the republic, Toluca, the 
progressive capital of the state of Mexico — the state 
out of which the federal district was carved — these are 
the main cities on this line between Monterey and the 
City of Mexico. The trip from the border to the 
capital traverses every variety of country from plain 
to valley and mountain. Among the principal large 
cities near the City of Mexico may be named Guadala- 
jara, in the west central portion, one of the prettiest 
cities to be found anywhere ; Aguas Callietes, named 
for the hot springs there ; Guanajuato, which is noted 
for having one of the oldest silver mines, one of the 
handsomest theatres and the largest collection of 
mummies to be found on the continent, and Cuerna- 
vaca, just south of the City of Mexico, always of in- 
terest to tourists because of the private residence of 
Cortez, and now becoming famous as a health resort. 
Popocatapetl, one of the tallest peaks on this hemi- 
sphere, is seen to advantage from the Cuernavaca 
road. 

The ride from the City of Mexico to Vera Cruz 
over the Mexican railroad, begins at an elevation of 
7,348 feet. The ride up to Esperanza, 700 feet above, 



196 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

is through the valley of Mexico, where the main crops 
are wheat and corn. From the car window one can 
draw a contrast between the old methods and the 
new, for some still use horses to tramp out the 
wheat, while a few employ the American-made thrash- 
ing machine. Here, too, the old plow closely resem- 
bling the crooked stick and drawn by oxen is fight- 
ing against the innovation of the modern plow. 

In this great valley the maguey plant is also a 
conspicuous feature. The various fields are often sep- 
arated by rows of the maguey, and where the fields 
are small the picture presented is an exceedinly at- 
tractive one. The maguey furnishes a variety of 
products — mescal, a kind of alcoholic drink used in 
the lower altitudes, is made from the roots of this 
plant, while pulque, the life-blood of the plant, the 
great drink of the plateau, is drawn from it at its ma- 
turity. Pulque looks like milk when dilulted with 
water, and, when fresh, smells like yeast. It is car- 
ried in pig skins, and carloads of it find their way into 
the City of Mexico every morning. It will produce a 
genuine case of intoxication, and the habit when once 
formed is as hard to cure as the whisky habit. On New 
Year's day we visited a hacienda in the suburbs of the 
City of Mexico owned by General John B . Frisby, an 
American, who went to Mexico several years ago and 
who is now identified with many large business enter- 
prises. Our atttention was called to a dog there 
which had acquired a taste for pulque. He goes to 
the field twice a day and finds some maguey plant 
from which pulque is being extracted (the period of 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— MEXICO 197 

extraction covers several weeks) and gets his dram, 
and then he staggers back with red eyes and sleeps off 
the effect of the liquor. He has ceased to be of value 
as a shepherd dog, but he is still useful as a horrible 
example. 

A part of the Frisby ranch has been converted 
into a dairy very successfully conducted by a man 
from Missouri who has imported into the country a 
large number of Jersey, Holstein and Brown Swiss 
cows. The dairy is a model of cleanliness and has 
proved profitable to its owners. 

But I digress. After leaving Esperanza the des- 
cent to Vera Cruz on the gulf, 112 miles distant, is 
begun. During the first seventeen miles of this trip 
the descent (to Maltrata) is about 2,500 feet and the 
scenery beautiful beyond description. From Maltrata 
to Orizaba the distance is only thirteen miles, but the 
descent is something over 1,500 feet. From Orizaba 
the descent is a little more gradual, the fall of 1,300 
feet being distributed over sixteen miles. At Cor- 
dova one sees tropical vegetation in all its luxuriance 
— oranges, pine-apples, bananas, coffee, all at one time, 
and in the distance the snow-clad summit of Orizaba 
which rises nearly 17,370 feet above the level of the 
ocean. 

From Cordova a new line called the Vera Cruz 
and Pacific, or as it is sometimes known, the Mason 
line, is just being completed to the isthmus. A branch 
from Tierra Blancha to Vera Cruz makes this a trans- 
continental line, and the improvement of the harbor at 
Vera Cruz will probably give it a considerable portion 
of the business across the isthmus. It also opens up 



198 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

fertile sugar, rice and grazing lands in southern 
Mexico. 

West of the village of Tierra Blancha, just across 
the Amapa river, in the state of Oaxaca, we visited a 
rubber tree plantation. It was projected by Alfred 
Bishop Mason, a Chicago business man, but the work 
of development has fallen to his nephews, Raymond 
Willis and James Trowbridge, the former a graduate 
of the Boston Polytechnic and the latter of Yale. 
These young men began about three years ago the 
clearing of about four hundred acres of tropical forest, 
so dense that it was difficult to secure any accurate 
idea of the lay of the land. They now have about 
300,000 rubber trees growing, the oldest two and a 
half years old. It will be four or five years before the 
plantation begins to yield a return, but there is at this 
time every promise of success. If the experiment rea- 
lizes the hopes of the young men they will deserve the 
reward that they will secure for they will not only 
make a fortune out of mother earth, but they will 
show others what can be accomplished in the de- 
velopment of this industry and thus become public 
benefactors. This well illustrates the difference be- 
tween wealth created by the establishment of some 
new industry and wealth absorbed by trading or spec- 
ulation. 

For two years Willis and Trowbridge lived in 
a hut thatched with palm leaves, but last spring they 
began the erection of a commodious stone house, with 
wide and airy porches, and to this newly completed 
residence the former has recently brought his bride, a 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— MEXICO 199 

Wellesley graduate, to preside over this new center of 
American civilization. 

Near Hacienda Yale, as this new plantation is 
called, is a low wooded mountain range, where as I 
was assured by Mr. Julio Tardos, who has a cattle 
ranch near, parrots, monkeys and even tigers can be 
found in their native haunts. But this I can only 
report from hearsay, for I did not have time to hunt 
parrots or monkeys and was not disposed to infringe 
upon the patent of those who find relief from the 
cares of state in the pursuit of the larger and more 
ferocious wild animals. 

The history of Mexico reads like a novel. 
Prescott's description of its conquest by Cortez 
could hardly be credited but for the confirmation 
which one finds on every hand. The toilsome 
march from the seashore to the table-land, the in- 
trigues with jealous tribes, the hair-breath escapes, 
the explorations and the advanced Indian civilization 
found — all these make Prescott's volumes intensely 
interesting. Senor Romero has brought the history 
down to date in two volumes issued by Putnam & Co., 
of New York, books that ought to be studied by every 
American. 

Nearly a hundred years ago the people of Mexico, 
part Spanish and part Indian, took up the fight for 
independence and, unaided, secured a separate politi- 
cal existence. This ended Spain's reign of three cen- 
turies beginning with the Conquest, during which time 
that mother country had given to Mexico a language 
and a religion, and had taken from Mexico about 



200 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

everything valuable that could be extracted from soil 
or people. Following independence came an era of 
frequent revolutions, although they were for the most 
part accompanied by but little bloodshed. 

Among the political leaders whose careers illus- 
trate the ups and downs of political ambition, Santa 
Ana was conspicuous. Sometimes he was in author- 
ity; sometimes he was fleeing from a successful op- 
ponent. At one time he lost a limb in battle, and as it 
was during one of his periods of victory the severed 
limb was buried with great pomp and ceremony. When 
he again suffered defeat and his opponent came into 
possession of the government the burled limb was 
resurrected, it is said, and despitefully kicked through 
the streets of the city. (I have sympathized with 
Santa Ana sometimes when I have been buried by the 
republicans and then exhumed for purposes of criti- 
cism.) 

The Mexican war brought the people of the 
United States and the people of Mexico into sharp 
antagonism for a little while, but the animosities en- 
gendered at that time have passed away, and there is 
now the most cordial feeling between the Mexicans 
and the Americans. This is partially due to the fact 
that the United States was largely instrumental in 
helping to rescue Mexico from European domination 
when, under the pretense of collecting a debt, Maxi- 
millian came over from Austria and declared himself 
emperor. He came while our civil war was in pro- 
gress, and at a time when our government was not 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— MEXICO 201 

in position to enforce the Monroe doctrine. As soon, 
however, as peace was declared at Appomatox our 
government began to interest itself again in the pro- 
tection of American soil, and as a result of its protests 
the European nations that had encouraged Maximil- 
lian withdrew from his support and left him to be dealt 
with by the Mexican people, who executed him as a 
solemn warning to other ambitious European mon- 
archs. 

Jaures, who was the Mexican leader at that time, 
became president, and is regarded as the second great 
Mexican — Hidalgo, who was the first leader in the 
war for independence, being considered the first. Hi- 
dalgo is often called the "Mexican Washington." 

The museum at the City of Mexico exhibits the 
state carriage of Maximillian, ornamented with silk 
and gold, and costing, it is said, $60,000. Near by is 
the very modest carriage of Jaures. The visitor marks 
the contrast between the splendor of an empire and 
the simplicity of a republic. Looking at the emperor's 
carriage and remembering his tragic end one recalls 
the lines of Gray's Elegy — 

"The paths of glory lead but to the grave." 

Between the Mexican war with the United States 
and the usurpation of Maximillian came the contest 
between the clergy and the laity in which the latter 
were successful and separated church and state so 
completely that while practically all of the people are 
members of one church the work of the church and 
the work of the state are not allowed to conflict. The 
experience of Mexico shows that if you will implant 



202 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

in people the idea of self-government and teach them 
the inalienable rights of the individual they will apply- 
that doctrine to all questions, and without being less 
devoted to their religion will obey the injunction, 
"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and 
unto God the things that are God's." 

The third great man produced by the Mexican 
republic is the present president. With the exception 
of one term he has been president since 1876, during 
which time he has shown wonderful ability, and it is 
doubtful if there is in the world today a chief execu- 
tive of greater capacity or devotion to his people. 
Certainly no people have made greater relative pro- 
gress than the Mexican people have made under the 
administration of Porfirio Diaz. Education has been 
promoted, law and order established, agriculture de- 
veloped, commerce stimulated, and nearly every sec- 
tion of the country connected by railroad with the 
capital. While there are many able and strong men 
upon whom the mantle of president might worthily 
fall, he has been so remarkably successful and has such 
a hold upon all classes of people that he will doubtless 
remain at the head of the government as long as he 
lives — the people would hardly consent to his with- 
drawal even if he desired to lay down the responsi- 
bilities of the position. 

I am sometimes asked whether I would advise 
people to invest in Mexico. The conditions that gov- 
ern an investment are so dependent upon circum- 
stances that no general advice can be given. In a 
report recently made to the American government, 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— MEXICO 203 

Consul General Barlow of the City of Mexico gave 
detailed statistics to show that up to the present time 
American money to the amount of about $511,000,000 
has been invested in the republic of Mexico. His re- 
port gives the amount invested in each town and the 
names of American firms doing business in Mexico. 
This very valuable report when published can prob- 
ably be secured from members of congress if not by 
direct application to the state department. 

The investments may be divided, generally, into 
five classes : railroad investments, mining investments, 
agricultural investments, manufacturing investments, 
and investments in city realty. In addition to these 
there have been investments in municipal lighting and 
water plants and there has been considerable made by 
Americans in contracting for the construction of rail- 
roads and the erection of public buildings. 

The Mexican railroads employ Amerians for con- 
ductors and engineers almost to the exclusion of the 
natives. The reason given me by one of the conduc- 
tors was that there is not so large a middle class to 
draw from there as in the United States. In Mexico 
the peons are not yet competent to fill these positions 
and the well-to-do Mexicans prefer the professions. 
With the increase in education, however, it is probable 
that the Americans will not long be able to monopolize 
this branch of the service. 

Quite a number of Americans are interested in 
gold, silver and copper mines in Mexico, that country 
coming second as a producer of silver and having an 



204 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

increased output (now about $10,000,000 annually) of 
gold. 

A large amount of American money has been in- 
vested in agricultural lands, coffee, sugar and grazing 
lands having the preference. The grazing lands are 
to be found both in the mountains, where the condi- 
tions are similar to those that prevail on the slopes of 
the Rockies, or in the lowlands, where there is a pro- 
lific growth of nutritious grass. 

The coffee lands are on the slopes of the moun- 
tains where the warm air from the lowlands meets the 
cooler air from the plateau and where there is an 
abundant rainfall. The sugar lands lie as a rule a 
little lower than the coffee lands. There is some cot- 
ton in Mexico, but not a great deal as compared with 
states like Texas. 

Mr. J. A. Roberston of Monterey is one of the 
enterprising Americans who has had experience in the 
development of agricultural lands, besides being con- 
nected with brick-making and other manufacturing 
enterprises. 

Judge Y. Sepulvida, formerly of California, has 
shown that an American can succeed there in the law, 
as has also Mr. Will Crittenden, formerly of Missouri. 

There has been a large and constant growth in 
the manufacturing industry of Mexico, especially in 
the manufacture of cotton. There are some very large 
plants, one of which is located at Orizaba and others 
are scattered throughout the country. 

Toluca, the capital of the state of Mexico, is mak- 
ing rapid progress in the development of manufactures 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— MEXICO 205 

in metal, fabrics and cereals. Governor Villada, the 
chief executive of this state, is one of the ablest, most 
energetic and generous of the public men of Mexico, 
and has had much to do with stimulating the progress 
so apparent in his state. He prepared an exhibit to be 
shown at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition and al- 
ready has a state exposition at Toluca which is well 
worth visiting. We spent a day there, and were sur- 
prised at the diversity of industry and at the superior 
workmanship manifested. Besides the industries men- 
tioned they have fine pottery plants and paper mills, 
one of the mills making an excellent quality of writing 
paper from the leaves of the maguey plant. Here, as 
elsewhere in Mexico, there is an abundance of wood 
carving, drawn work and feather work. 

Considerable money has been made by Americans 
by subdividing and platting acre property near the 
growing cities. There are many opportunities in 
Mexico for the man who goes there with capital and 
with knowledge of an industry to bring out the latent 
possibilities of soil and climate. There are also op- 
portunities for those who go as skilled laborers to 
oversee industries in the process of development, 
although these opportunities lessen with the increase 
of education among the Mexicans, but in going one 
must consider the change of climate. Emigration is 
seldom from zone to zone, and it is not likely that any 
large number of Americans will care to make a per- 
manent residence in what is known as the hot country, 
that is, the lowlands in the torrid zone. On the plateau 



206 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

the altitude (about 7,000 feet) is such that our people 
can live there without suffering inconvenience. It is 
hardly worth one's while to go there to look for ordi- 
nary day's work, and if any one is contemplating an 
investment he ought to visit the country first and 
acquaint himself with all the circumstances that sur- 
round the industry in which he is going to invest. The 
cost of a trip to Mexico is so small compared with an 
investment of any considerable sum that a person 
would be foolish to send his money without first look- 
ing over the ground himself. 

One has no difficulty in traveling in Mexico be- 
cause he finds English spoken on the railroads and in 
all the leading hotels and stores. I may add a word 
of caution. The venders at the depots do not always 
follow the "one price" plan. The price when the train 
first stops is sometimes considerably higher than the 
price of the same article just as the train is leaving. 
We heard stories of the deceptions occasionally prac- 
ticed in the preparation of merchandise for the mar- 
ket. In fact our boy, after having bought a pair of very- 
pretty little birds, was somewhat disturbed by the sug- 
gestion that birds were sometimes painted for the pur- 
pose of giving variety of color. Sufficient time has 
elapsed, however, to show that in this case the hues 
were put on by nature's brush and made indelible. 

I found that the people of Mexico were discussing 
the money question. I did not meet a single person 
in the republic who declared himself in favor of the 
gold standard, but some were alarmed at the possibility 
of its adoption. Statements eminating from the United 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— MEXICO 207 

States financiers have been quoted in Mexican papers 
and some of the local financiers have adopted the pol- 
icy that has everywhere been pursued by those who 
sought to make a change in the financial system 
against the interests of the people. These financiers, 
while declaring themselves averse to the gold stand- 
ard, were suggesting the fixing of a new ratio between 
gold and silver with the idea of preventing the fluctu- 
ation of exchange. 

All domestic business is transacted with silver, 
and when the people buy home products the question 
of exchange does not enter in, but the importers are 
embarrassed by a fall in silver. If they agree to sell 
to retailers at a certain price in silver their profit may 
be entirely extinguished by a rise in exchange. This 
has a tendency, however, to make them buy domestic- 
made goods, and the domestic manufacturers have not 
been heard to complain. The better informed of the 
Mexicans understand that a change in the ratio is only 
an indirect means of securing a step toward the gold 
standard, for the adoption of a new ratio — 32 to 1 hav- 
ing been suggested by one local financier — would not 
prevent the fluctuation in exchange unless the govern- 
ment should undertake to exchange gold and silver 
coins at that ratio. If the new ratio was established 
and the government assumed no responsibility for the 
maintenance of that ratio in the market, the fluctuation 
would go on every day just as now, with this addi- 
tional disadvantage that the change, as soon as it was 
recognized to be a blow at silver, would probably still 
further depress the price of that metal. If, on the 



208 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

other hand, the government undertook to maintain the 
parity by exchanging gold for silver at that ratio it 
would have to bear the losses now borne by the import 
trade, but it would not have the same means of pro- 
tecting itself that the importer has. The importer can 
protect himself by buying at home, but the govern- 
ment could only protect itself by collecting taxes 
enough to cover the loss. The danger about this ex- 
periment is that the financiers, having secured a new 
ratio would, if it proved unsatisfactory, as it certainly 
would, insist that having taken that step a further step 
would have to be taken. If the ratio was changed and 
the government did not make the metals interchange- 
able at that ratio the next step would be a demand that 
the government assume this responsibility, and if the 
government did assume it the expense of it would be 
used as an argument in favor of abandoning silver 
entirely. 

Silver is Mexico's largest export, and her public 
men understand that legislation against it would not 
only reduce the export price and thus lessen 
the ability of Mexico to pay her debts abroad, but if it 
finally led to the discarding of a money which she pro- 
duces herself, would compel her to mortgage herself 
to foreign financiers to secure the money necessary to 
do the business of the country. 

Mexico's leaders, from the president and members 
of his cabinet down to the members of congress, gov- 
ernors and lesser officials, are much better informed 
than the outside world gives them credit for being, and 
they know that Mexico, a great silver producing coun- 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— MEXICO 209 

try, could not discriminate against silver and join in 
the scramble for gold without immediately increasing 
the gap between gold and silver, a sufficient evil, and 
without ultimately aiding to drive other silver using 
nations to the yellow metal. It is likely, therefore, 
that Mexico will adhere to silver in spite of the incon- 
venience caused by a fluctuation in exchange rather 
than invite the greater perils that would come from an 
adoption of the gold standard. 

It is evident from what is going on in the United 
States and in the great money centers that the finan- 
ciers are determined to take from the people any ad- 
vantage that might come from an increased production 
of gold. Schemes are being constantly devised for in- 
creasing the demand for gold, and the strain upon it. 
If the money-changers have their way the demand will 
not only be made equal to the supply, but enough 
greater than the supply to insure an era of falling 
prices, a condition beneficial only to the owners of 
money and fixed investments. 

The quantitative theory of money is now gener- 
ally admitted. It is a well recognized fact that a 
doubling of the population without any increase in the 
supply of wheat would raise the price of wheat, and it 
is also understood that a doubling of the gold using 
population without an increase in the supply of gold 
would raise the purchasing power of each ounce of 
gold. The director of the mint is already discouraging 
the production of gold, and the financiers are doing 
what they can to increase the demand for it. These 
efforts cannot be successful without serious injury to 



210 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

the producing classes of the world. The people in 
gold-using countries ought to be grateful to Mexico 
for standing steadfast in her determination to keep 
silver a part of the currency of the world, for, to the 
extent that silver is used, the strain upon gold is 
lessened. V 

In conclusion I may add that Mexico furnishes a 
complete answer to the arguments of imperialists. In 
the first place, those who say that we cannot haul 
down the flag when once it has been raised will find 
that our flag once floated over Chepultepec, the rocky 
hill that rises abruptly from the plain of Mexico and 
which was for ages the citidel of the Montezumas. 
When the treaty of peace was signed our flag was 
hauled down and brought back more than 800 miles to 
the Rio Grande. This not only proves that the flag 
can be hauled down, but subsequent history shows 
that it was better for the flag of the Mexican republic 
to float over the Mexican people than that the char- 
acter of our government should have been changed in 
order to make our flag wave over a subject race. Her 
officials are of the same race and blood as her citizens, 
and they are knit together by bonds of sympathy that 
are impossible when a foreign master rules a con- 
quered people. 

Sometimes the imperialist attempts to appeal to a 
patriotic sentiment and argues that our flag must float 
over the Philippines because Americans lie buried 
there. If he will visit Mexico he will find in the sub- 
urbs of the capital an American graveyard where the 
stars and stripes are raised at sunrise and lowered at 



OUR SISTER REPUBLIC— MEXICO 21] 

sunset. In this ground, owned by the United States 
the soldiers of the Mexican war, known and unknown 
are buried and an American citizen, an appointee o! 
our government, sees that their graves are kept green 
Here on Decoration Day flowers are brought, and th< 
sleep of these soldiers is none the less sweet becaus< 
their companions in arms and their country's official* 
preferred to observe the principles of the Declaratior. 
of Independence rather than convert a republic intc 
an empire. 

Again^the imperialist will find in Mexico mort 
progress made in the last thirty years than he can find 
in India during the hundred and fifty years of English 
rule. And in Mexico the imperialist will find more 
great men developed by the inspiring doctrines of civil 
liberty and inalienable rights than England has ever 
sent to India to conduct her colonial government. 

All things considered, Mexico's experience is il- 
lustrative of the growth of democratic principles and 
can be studied with profit by Americans. The friend- 
ship existing today between the United States and 
Mexico is based upon an identity of interests and upon 
a growing identity of ideas. If any conflict arises be- 
tween the United States and European countries in 
respect to the enforcement of the Monroe doctrine, 
Mexico is likely to be our staunchest and most valu- 
able ally. 



Value of an Ideal 



A Lecture Delivered a Number of Times at Colleges. 
Chautauquas and in Lecture Courses. 



THE VALUE OF AN IDEAL. 

What is the value of an ideal? Have you ever 
attempted to estimate its worth? Have you ever tried 
to measure its value in dollars and cents ? If you would 
know the pecuniary value of an ideal, go into the home 
of some man of great wealth who has an only son; 
go into that home when the son has gone downward 
in a path of dissipation until the father no longer 
hopes for his reform, and then ask the father what an 
ideal would have been worth that would have made 
a man out of his son instead of a wreck. He will tell 
you that all the money that he has or could have, he 
would gladly give for an ideal of life that would turn 
his boy's steps upward instead of downward. 

An ideal is above price. It means the difference 
between success and failure— the difference between a 
noble life and a disgraceful career, and it sometimes 
means the difference between life and death. Have 
you noticed the increasing number of suicides ? I speak 
not of those sad cases in which the reason dethroned 
leaves the hand no guide, but rather of those cases, 
increasing in number, where the person who takes his 
life finds nothing worth living for. When I read of 
one of these cases I ask myself whether it is not 
caused by a false ideal of life. If one measures life 
by what others do for him he is apt to be disappointed, 
for people are not likely to do as much for him as he 

215 



216 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

expects. One of the most difficult things in life is 
to maintain the parity between one's opinion of his 
own merits and the opinion that others have of him 
If, I repeat, a man measures life by what others do 
for him, he is apt to be disappointed, but if he meas- 
ures life by what he does for others, there is no time 
for despair. If he measures life by its accumulations, 
these usually fall short of his expectations, but if he 
measures life by the contribution which he makes to 
the sum of human happiness, his only disappoint- 
ment is in not finding time to do all that his heart 
prompts him to do. Whether he spends his time try- 
ing to absorb from the world, only to have the bur- 
den of life grow daily heavier, or spends his time in 
an effort to accomplish something of real value to the 
race, depends upon his ideal. 

The ideal must be far enough above us to keep us 
looking up toward it all the time, and it must be far 
enough in advance of us to keep us struggling toward 
it to the end of life. It is a very poor ideal that one 
ever fully realizes, and it is a great misfortune for 
one to overtake his ideal, for when he does his prog- 
ress stops. I was once made an honorary member 
of a class and asked to suggest a class motto. I sug- 
gested "Ever-Green" and some of the class did not 
like it. They did not like to admit that they ever had 
been green, not to speak of always being green. But 
it is a good class motto because the period of green- 
ness is the period of growth. When we cease to be 
green and are entirely ripe we are ready for decay. I 
like to think of life as a continual progress toward 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 217 

higher and better things — as a continual unfolding. 
There is no better description of a really noble life 
than that given in Holy Writ where the wise man 
speaks of the path of the just as "like the shining light 
that shineth more and more unto the perfect day." 

The ideal is permanent; it does not change. 
Therefore it is so important that the ideal shall be a 
worthy one. I speak as a parent to parents, and 
teachers will endorse what I say, when I declare that 
one of the most important things in dealing with the 
young is to get the person to take firm hold of a 
high ideal. Give one food and he will hunger again; 
give him clothing and his clothing will wear out, but 
give him a high ideal and that ideal will be with him 
through every waking hour, lifting him to a higher 
plane in life and giving him a broader conception of 
his relations to his fellows. Plans may change ; cir- 
cumstances will change plans. Each one of us can 
testify to this. Even ambitions change, for circum- 
stances will change ambitions. If you will pardon 
a reference to my own case, I have had three ambi- 
tions, — two so far back that I can scarcely remember 
them, and one so recent that I can hardly forget it. 
My first ambition was to be a Baptist preacher. When 
I was a small boy if any body asked me what I in- 
tended to be, I always replied "A Baptist preacher;" 
but my father took me one evening to see an immer- 
sion and upon reaching home I asked him if it would 
be necessary to go down into that pool of water in 
order to be a Baptist preacher. He replied that it 
would, and it is a tradition in our family that I never 



218 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

afterwards would say that I was going to be a Baptist 
preacher. 

My second ambition was to be a farmer and raise 
pumpkins, and there are doubtless a great many peo- 
ple who are glad that I now have a chance to realize 
my second ambition without having my agricultural 
pursuits interrupted by official cares. 

My third ambition was to be a lawyer. When I 
was a barefoot boy I used to go to the court house 
and sitting upon the steps leading up to the bench up- 
on which my father then sat I listened to the trial of 
cases and looked forward to the time when I would be 
practicing at the bar. That ambition guided me 
through my boyhood days and my college days. I 
studied law, was admitted to the bar, practiced for 
a while in Illinois and then located in Nebraska. In 
removing from Illinois to Nebraska I was influenced 
solely by professional reasons. I need not give you 
any further assurance that I did not move to Ne- 
braska for political reasons than to say that at the 
time of my location in Lincoln, Nebraska was re- 
publican, the congressional district was republican, 
the county was republican, the city was republican, 
the ward was republican, and the voting precinct was 
republican— and to tell the truth about it, there has not 
been as much change in that respect as there ought to 
have been considering the intelligence of the people 
among whom I have been living. 

I entered politics by accident and remained there 
by design. I was nominated for Congress in 1890 
because it was not thought possible for a demo- 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 219 

crat to be elected. I was young and new in the 
state. If it had been a democratic district the honor 
would have gone to some one older, of longer resi- 
dence and more deserving. A republican paper said 
next morning after the convention that a confidence 
game had been played upon a young man from Illi- 
nois and that he had been offered as a sacrifice upon 
the party altar because he had not been in the 
state long enough to know the political complexion 
of the district. My location in Nebraska was due 
to my acquaintance with a man whom I learned to 
know in college and this acquaintance became more 
intimate because of a joke which I played upon him 
when we were students. Tracing it back step by 
step, I said one evening in Baltimore that I was elect- 
ed to congress as a result of a joke that I played upon 
a friend in college. The gentleman who followed 
me said that that was nothing, that he had known 
men to go to congress as a result of a joke they had 
played upon an entire community. 

My term in congress brought me into contact 
with the great political and economic problems now 
demanding solution and I have never since that time 
been willing to withdraw myself from their study 
and discussion, and I offer no apology at this time 
for being interested in the science of government. It 
is a noble science, and one to which the citizen must 
give his attention. I have no patience with those 
who feel that they are too good to take part in poli- 
tics. When I find a person who thinks that he is 
too good to take part in politics, I find one who is 



220 . UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

not quite good enough to deserve the blessings of a 
free government. Parents sometimes warn their 
sons to keep out of politics ; mothers sometimes urge 
their sons to avoid politics lest they become contam- 
inated by it. This ought not to be. It used to be the 
boast of the Roman matron that she could rear strong 
and courageous sons for the battle-field. In this age 
when the victories of peace are no less renowned than 
the victories of war, and in this country where every 
year brings a conflict, it ought to be the boast of 
American mothers that they can rear strong and cour- 
ageous sons who can enter politics without contamin- 
ation and purify politics rather than be corrupted by 
politics. 

But while my plans and ambitious have been 
changed by circumstances, I trust that my ideals of 
citizenship have not changed, and that I may be per- 
mitted to share with you an ideal that will place 
above the holding of any office, however great, the 
purpose to do what I can to make this country so 
good that to be a private citizen in the United States 
will be greater than to be a king in any other na- 
tion. 

The ideal dominates the life, determines the char- 
acter and fixes a man's place among his fellows. I 
shall mention some instances that have come under 
my own observation and as I speak of them I am 
sure you will recall instances within your knowledge 
where the ideal has in an open and obvious way con- 
trolled the life. I have known laboring men who, 
working for wages, have been able to support them- 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 221 

selves, acquire a library and become acquainted with 
the philosophers, orators and historians of the world, 
and many of them have laid aside enough to gratify 
their ambition for a college course. What enables 
them to resist temptation and press forward to the 
consummation of a high purpose? It is their ideal of 
life. As I have gone through the country I have 
found here and there young men — sometimes the sons 
of farmers, sometimes the sons of mechanics, some- 
times the sons of merchants, sometimes the sons of 
professional men — young men who have one charac- 
teristic in common, namely, that they have been pre- 
paring for service. They have learned that service is 
the measure of greatness, and though they have not 
always known just what line of work they were to 
follow, they have been preparing themselves for ser- 
vice, and they will be ready when the opportunity 
comes. 

I know a young man who came to this country 
when he was eighteen years of age; he came to study 
our institutions and learn of our form of govern- 
ment, and now he has returned with a determination 
to be helpful to his people. I watched him for five 
years, and I never knew a man who more patiently or 
perseveringly pursued a high ideal. You might have 
offered him all the money in the treasury to have be- 
come a citizen of the United States, but it would 
have been no temptation to him. He would have told 
you that he had a higher ideal than to stand guard 
over a chest of money. His desire was to be useful to 
his country, and I have no doubt that he will be. 






222 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

I was passing through Chicago some months ago 
and having a few hours to spare between trains, went 
out to the Hull House, that splendid institution pre- 
sided over by Jane Addams. I was surprised to learn 
of the magnitude of its work. I learned that more 
than five thousand names were enrolled ulpon the 
books of the association ; that mothers left their babes 
there when they went out to work, that little chil- 
dren received kindergarten instruction there, that 
young women found a home there and young men a 
place where they could meet and commune free from 
the temptations of city life. More than twenty young 
men and young women give their entire time to the 
work of this association without compensation. Simi- 
lar institutions will be found in nearly all of the larger 
cities and in many of the smaller ones, and in these in- 
stitutions young men and young women, many of 
them college graduates, give a part or all of their 
time to gratuitous work. Why? Because somehow 
or somewhere they have taken hold of an ideal of 
life that lifts them above the sordid selfishness that 
surrounds them and makes them find a delight in 
bringing life and light and hope into homes that are 
dark. The same can be said of the thousands who 
labor in the institutions of charity, mercy and benevo- 
lence, 

A few months ago it was my good fortune to 
Ispend a day in the country home of the peasant phi- 
losopher of Russia. You know something of the his- 
jtory of Tolstoy, how he was born in the ranks of 
ithe nobility and how with such a birth he enjoyed 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 2*21 

every possible social distinction. At an early age 
he became a writer of fiction and his books have given 
him a fixed place among the novelists of the century. 
"He sounded all the depths and shoals of honor" in 
so far as honor could be derived from society or from 
literature, and yet at the age of forty-eight life seemed 
so vain and empty to him that he would fain have 
terminated his existence. They showed me a ring 
in the ceiling of a room in his house from which he 
had planned to hang himself. And what deterred 
him? A change came in his ideals. He was born 
again, he became a new creature, and for more than 
twenty-eight years, clad in the garb of a peasant and 
living the simple life of a peasant, he has been preach- 
ing unto all the world a philosophy that rests upon 
the doctrine "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself." There is 
scarcely a civilized community in all the world where 
the name of Tolstoy is not known and where his in- 
fluence has not been felt. He has made such an im- 
pression upon the heart of Russia and the world that 
while some of his books are refused publication in 
Russia and denied importation from abroad, while 
people are prohibited from circulating some of the 
things that he writes, yet with a million men under 
arms the government does not lay its hands upon 
yTolstoy. 

yj — Let me add another illustration of a complete 

,'"ehange in the ideal. In college I became acquainted 

< with a student fourteen years my senior, and learned 

ihe story of his life. For some years he was a tramp. 



ite UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

going from place to place without fixed purpose or 
habitation. One night he went by accident into a place 
where a revival was in progress, and he was not only 
converted but he decided to be a minister. I watched 
him as he worked his way through college, doing 
chores to earn his board and lodging, working on 
Saturdays in a store, and during the summer months 
at anything he could find to do. 1 watched him as 
he worked his way through theological seminary and 
then I watched him as he preached the Gospel until 
he died, and I never knew a man more consecrated to 
a high purpose. The change came in his life as in the 
twinkling of an eye. Could anything be more mar- 
velous? 

Some have rejected the Christian religion because 
they could not understand its mysteries and its mir- 
acles. I passed through a period of skepticism when 
I was in college, but I have seen outside of the Bible 
so many things more marvelous than anything record- 
ed in Holy Writ that its mysteries no longer disturb 
me. Is it impossible that a multitude could have 
been fed with a few loaves and fishes? Every spring 
when the sun melts the ice and drives away the snow, 
vegetation springs up and not a few thousand but hun- 
dreds of millions are fed with the products of the 
soil. And how many of those who eat are satisfied 
understand the chemistry of the vegetable? I plant 
some seed myself in the springtime, — lettuce seed, 
melon seed, various kinds of seed. The earth grows 
warm beneath the rays of the sun; the seeds burst 
forth and send their little roots down into the ground 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 225 

and their tiny leaves up into the air. And, draw- 
ing their sustenance from the same soil and the same 
atmosphere, these vegetables finally mature and when 
I go to gather them I find that they differ in size, in 
shape, in flavor, in coloring, in everything. But I like 
them and eat them although I do not understand the 
mystery of their growth. Did you ever raise a rad- 
ish? You put a small black seed into the black soil 
and in a little while you return to the garden and find 
the full grown radish. The top is green, the body 
white and almost transparent and the skin a delicate 
red or pink. What mysterious power reaches out 
and gathers from the ground the particles which give 
it form and size and flavor? Whose is the invisible 
brush that transfer to the root, growing in darkness, 
the hues of the summer sunset? If we were to refuse 
to eat anything until we could understand the mys- 
tery of its creation we would die of starvation — but 
mystery, it seems, never bothers us in the dining 
room, it is only in the church that it causes us to 
hesitate. 

The mystery of life itself has never been revealed 
to us. Six thousand years of human history, and yet 
who understands the mystery of his own being? I 
speak to you from this platform ; we have our thoughts, 
we have our hopes, we have our fears, and yet we 
know that in a moment a change may come over any 
one of us that will convert a living, breathing human 
being into a mass of lifeless clay. We walk all the 
way beneath the shadow of death, and yet the splendid 
civilization which we see about us is the product of 






226 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

men and women who do not understand the mystery 
of their own lives. 

I have been reading a book recently on materialism 
and I have been interested in the attempt of the author 
to drive God out of the universe. He searches for 
Him with a microscope, and because he cannot find 
Him with a microscope, he declares that he is too 
small to see ; then he searches for Him with a tele- 
scope, and because he cannot see Him among the stars 
or beyond, he declares that there is no God, — that 
matter and force alone are eternal, and that force act- 
ing on matter has produced the clod, the grass that 
grows upon the clod, the beast that feeds upon the 
grass, and man, the climax of created things. I have 
tried to follow his reasoning and have made up my 
mind that it requires more faith to accept the scien- 
tific demonstrations of materialism than to accept any 
religion of which I have known. As I tried to follow 
his syllogisms I was reminded of the reasoning of a 
man who conceived the idea that a grasshopper 
heard through its legs. But he would not accept it 
without demonstration, so he took a grasshopper, put 
it on a board and knocked oh the board. The grass- 
hopper jumped, and this he regarded as evidence that 
the sound traveled along the board till it reached the 
grasshoppers legs and then went up through the legs 
to the center of life. But he was not willing to accept 
it upon affirmative proof alone ; he insisted upon prov- 
ing it negatively, so he pulled the legs off the grass- 
hopper and put it on the board and rapped again. As 
the grasshopper did not jump, he was convinced that 
it heard through its legs. 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 227 

I say I was reminded of the grasshopper scientist 
when I read the arguments employed to prove that 
there is no God, no spiritual life. There is nothing in 
materialism to explain the change which takes place 
in a human heart when a man begins to hate the 
things he loved and to love the things he hated — noth- 
ing in materialism to explain the marvellous transform- 
ation that takes place in a human being who, before 
the change, would have sacrificed a world to his own 
advancement but who after the change would give his 
life for a principle and esteem it a privilege to sacrifice 
for his convictions. In the journey from the cradle to 
the grave we encounter nothing so marvellous as the 
change in the ideals that works a revolution in the 
life itself. ^ — 

It makes a great deal of difference to the individ- 
ual what his ideal is, and it also makes a difference to 
those about him. If you have a man working for you, 
it makes a great deal of difference to you whether he 
is watching you all the time to see that you give him 
the best possible pay for his work, or watching himself 
a little to see that he gives you the best possible work 
for his pay. And we are all working for somebody. 
Instead of working by the day and receiving our pay 
at night, or instead of working by the month and re- 
ceiving our pay at the end of the month, we may be in 
independent business and receiving a compensation 
fixed by competition, but if we are not living a life of 
idleness we must be working for somebody, and it 
makes a great deal of difference to society whether 



228 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

we are simply bent upon absorbing as much as pos- 
sible from the world, or are trying to give a dollar's 
worth of service for a dollar's worth of pay. There 
are some who regard it as a discreditable thing to en- 
gage in productive labor. There are places where they 
count with pride the number of generations between 
themselves and honest toil. If I can leave but one 
thought with the young men who honor me by their 
presence on this occasion, let it be this thought — that 
we must all have food and clothing and shelter, and 
must either earn these things or have them given to 
us, and any self-respecting young man ought to be 
ashamed to sponge upon the world for his living and 
not render unto the world valuable service in return. 
Sometimes you meet a man who boasts that he is 
"self-made," that he did it all himself, that he owes no 
man anything. Well, a little of the big-head may be 
excusable. I remember hearing my father say once 
that if a man had the big head you could whittle it 
down, but that if he had the little head there was no 
hope for him. It is necessary that a person should 
have confidence in his ability to do things, or he will 
not undertake them. But when I hear of a man boast- 
ing of his independence I feel like cross-examining 
him. We owe a great deal to environment. I was 
going along by the side of the court house in Chicago 
one wintery day and saw some little boys gambling 
with their pennies in a warm corner by the building. 
A question arose in my mind, namely, why these 
little fellows were born and reared amid an environ- 
ment that gave them no higher ideals of life, while so 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 229 

many in Chicago and in the country at large were 
born amid an environment that gave them higher 
ideals and larger conceptions of life? The scene made 
an impression upon my memory, and when I hear a 
man boasting that he owes no one anything, I feel like 
asking him whether he has paid back the debt he owes 
to father and mother, teacher and patriarch? Whether 
he has paid back the debt he owes to the patriots who 
with blood and sacrifice purchased the liberties which 
we now enjoy. We have received so much from the 
generations past and from those about us that instead 
of boasting of what we have done we ought to learn 
humility and be content if at the end of life we can 
look back over the years and be assured that we have 
given to the world a service equal in value to that 
which we have received. 

There is abroad in the land a speculative spirit that 
is doing much harm. Instead of trying to earn a liv- 
ing, young men are bent on making a fortune. Not 
content with the slow accumulations of honest toil, 
they are seeking some short cut to riches, and are not 
always scrupulous about the means employed. The 
"get-rich-quick" schemes that spring up and swindle 
the public until they are discovered and driven out, 
prey upon the speculative spirit and find all their vic- 
tims among those who are trying to get something for 
nothing. If a lottery were permitted to open up in 
this town and offered a thousand dollar prize, and sold 
chances at a dollar apiece, you would be surprised to 
find how many would send around to the back door 
and purchase a ticket. 



- 230 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

What we need today is an ideal of life that will 
/ make people as anxious to render full service as they 
are to draw full pay — an ideal that will make them 
measure life by what they bestow upon their fellows 
; not by what they receive. 

VvNot only must the individual have an ideal, but we 
must have ideals as groups of individuals and in every 
department of life. We have our domestic ideals. 
Whether a marriage is happy or not depends not so 
much upon the size of the house or the amount of the 
income, as upon the ideals with which the parties 
enter marriage. If two people contract marriage like 
some people trade horses — each one trying to get the 
better of the bargain — it is not certain that the mar- 
riage will be a happy one. In fact, the man who cheats 
in a horse trade has at least one advantage over the 
man who cheats in matrimony. The man who cheats 
in a horse trade may console himself with the thought 
that he will never see again the person whom he has 
cheated. Not so fortunate is the man who cheats in 
marriage. He not only sees daily the person whom 
he has cheated, but he is sometimes reminded of it — 
and it is just as bad if the cheating is done by the 
other side. Americans sometimes have to blush when 
they read of the international marriages so much dis- 
cussed in the papers. I speak not now of those cases 
where love leaps across the ocean and binds two 
hearts — there are such cases and they are worthy of a 
blessing. But I speak rather of those commercial 
transactions which are by courtesy called marriages, 
where some young woman in this country trades a 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 23J 

fortune that she never earned to a broken down prince 
of another country for a title that he never earned, 
and they call it a fair exchange. I have sometimes 
thought that it might be worth while to establish 
papers in the centers of the old world to tell the peo- 
ple of our real marriages, so that they would not mis- 
understand us. 

There is an American ideal of domestic life. When 
two persons, drawn together by the indissoluble ties 
of love, enter marriage, each one contributing a full 
part and both ready to share life's struggles and trials 
as well as its victories and its joys — when these, mu- 
tually helpful and mutually forbearing, start out to 
build an American home it ought to be the fittest 
earthly type of heaven. 

In business it is necesary to have an ideal. It is as 
impossible to build a business without an ideal as it 
is to build a house without a plan. Some think that 
competition is so sharp now that it is impossible to 
be strictly honest in business ; some think that it is 
necessary to recommend a thing, not as it is, but as 
the customer wants it to be. There never was a time 
when it was more necessary than it is today that busi- 
ness should be built upon a foundation of absolute 
integrity. 

In the professions, also, an ideal is necessary .Take 
the medical profession for illustration. It is proper 
that the physician should collect money from his pa- 
tients for he must live while he helps others to live, 
but the physicians who have written their names high 
upon the scroll of fame have had a higher ideal than 



232 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

the making of money. They have had a passion for 
the study of their profession ; they have searched dili- 
gently for the hidden causes of disease and the reme- 
dies therefore and they have found more delight in 
giving to the world some discovery of benefit to the 
race, than they have found in all of the money that 
they have collected from their patients. 

And the lawyer; has he ideals? Yes. I suppose 
the ideals of lawyers vary as much as the ideals in 
any other profession. I have known lawyers to boast 
of securing the acquittal of men whom they knew to 
be guilty; I have heard them boast of having secured 
for their clients what they knew their clients did not 
deserve. I do not understand how a lawyer can so 
bor-st. He is an officer of the court and as such he is 
sworn to assist in the administration of justice. When 
he has helped his client to secure all that is justly due 
him he has done his full duty as a lawyer, and if he 
goes beyond that he goes at his own peril. Show me 
a lawyer who has spent a lifetime trying to obliterate 
the line between right and wrong and I will show you 
a man whose character has grown weaker year by 
year, and whose advice is at last of no value to a client, 
because he will have lost the power to discriminate be- 
tween right and wrong. Show me, on the other hand, 
a lawyer who has spent a lifetime in the search for 
truth, determined to follow where it leads, and I will 
show you a man whose character has grown stronger 
year by year and whose advice is of constantly increas- 
ing value because the power to discern the truth 
grows with the honest search for truth. 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 233 

Then, too, a lawyer's influence with the judge de- 
pends largely upon his reputation for honesty. Of 
course a lawyer can fool a judge a few times and lead 
him into a hole, but after awhile the judge learns to 
know the lawyer, and then he cannot follow the law- 
yer's arguments because he is looking for the hole all 
the time, which he knows is somewhere and which he 
is trying to avoid. I need not remind you that nothing 
is so valuable to a jury lawyer as a reputation that 
will make the jujrors believe that he will not under 
any circumstances misstate a proposition of law or of 
evidence. And so I might take up each occupation, 
calling and profession, and show that the ideal con- 
trols the life, determines the character and establishes 
a man's place among his fellows. 

But let me speak of the ideals of a larger group. 
What of our political ideals? The party as well as 
the individual must have its ideals, and we are far 
enough from the election to admit that there is room 
in all the parties for the raising of the party ideal. 
How can a person most aid his party? Let us sup- 
pose that one is passionately devoted to his party and 
anxious to render it the maximum of service ; how 
can he render this service? By raising the ideal of 
his party. If a young man asks me how he can make 
a fortune in a day, I cannot tell him. If he asks how 
he can become rich in a year, I know not what to 
answer him, but I can tell him that if he will locate in 
any community and for twenty-five years live an 
honest life, an industrious life, a useful life, he will 
make friends and fasten them to him with hooks of 
steel ; he will make his impress upon the community 



234 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

and the chances are many to one that before the 
quarter of a century has elapsed his fellows will call 
upon him to act for them and to represent them in 
important matters. 

And so if you ask me how we can win an election 
this year, I do not know. If you ask me how we can 
insure a victory four years from now, I cannot tell, 
but I do know that the party which has the highest 
ideals and that strives most earnestly to realize its 
ideals will ultimately dominate this country and make 
its impress upon the history of the nation. As it is 
more important that the young man shall know how 
to build character and win a permanent success than 
that he shall know how to become rich in a day, so it 
is more important that we shall know how to contrib- 
ute to the permanent influence of a party than it is 
that we be able to win a temporary victory or dis- 
tribute the spoils of office after a successful campaign. 

The country is suffering today from a demoraliza- 
tion of its ideals. Instead of measuring people by the 
manhood or womanhood they manifest, we are too 
prone to measure them by the amount of money they 
possess, and this demoralization has naturally and 
necessarily extended to politics. Instead of asking "Is 
it right?" we are tempted to ask "Will it pay?" and 
"Will it win?" As a result the public conscience is 
becoming seared and the public service debauched. 
We find corruption in elections and corruption in 
office. Men sell their votes, councilmen sell their in- 
fluence, while state legislators and federal representa- 
tives turn the government from its legitimate channels 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 235 

and make it a private asset in business."}Nlt is said 
•that in some precincts in Delaware a majority of the 
voters have been paid for their votes. Governor Garvin 
of Rhode Island calls attention to the corruption in 
that state; there is corruption in Connecticut, in New 
Jersey and in Pennsylvania. I learned of an instance 
in New York where a farmer with a quarter-section 
of land demanded a dollar and a half for his vote, and 
I learned of another instance in West Virginia where 
a man came in fourteen miles from the country the day 
before election to notify the committee that he would 
not vote the next day unless he received a dollar. In 
some places I found that democrats were imitating 
republican methods. They excused it by saying that 
they were fighting the Devil with fire. This is no 
excuse. It is poor policy to fight the devil with fire. 
He knows more about fire than you do and does not 
have to pay so much for fuel. I was assured that the 
democrats did not buy votes exactly like the republi- 
cans. I was assured that the democrats only bought 
votes when they found some democrat who was being 
tempted more than he could bear, and that they only 
used money to fortify the virtue of the democrat for 

fear he might yield to temptation and become vicious. 

/-■-..-■ 
How are we to stop this corruption? Not by going 
into the market and bidding against our opponents, 
but by placing against money something stronger 
than money. And what is stronger than money? A 
conscience is stronger than money. A conscience that 
will enable a man to stand by a stake and smile while 
the flames consume him is stronger than money, and 




886 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

we must appeal to the conscience — not to a demo- 
cratic conscience or to a republican conscience, but to 
an American conscience and to a Christian conscience 
and place this awakened conscience against the on- 
flowing tide of corruption in the United States. 

We must have parties in this country. Jefferson 
said that there were naturally two parties in every 
country — a democratic party and an aristocratic party 
(and he did not use the word "democratic" in a parti- 
san sense, for at that time the party which we now 
call democratic was called the republican party). Jef- 
ferson said that a democratic party would naturally 
draw to itself those who believe in the people and 
trust them, while an aristocratic party would natur- 
ally draw to itself those who do not believe in or trust 
the people. Jefferson was right. Go into any country 
in Europe, and you will find a party of some name 
that is trying to increase the participation of the peo- 
ple in the government, and you will also find a party 
of some name which is obstructing every step toward 
popular government. We have the same difference 
in this country, but the democratic spirit is broader 
here than any party. Wherever the question has been 
clearly presented and on the one side there was an at- 
tempt to carry the government nearer to the people 
and on the other an effort to carry the government 
further from the people, popular government has al- 
ways wonji/Let me illustrate. The Australian ballot 
is intended to protect the citizen in his right to vote, 
and thus give effect to the real wishes of the people, 
and when this reform was proposed it swept the coun- 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 237 

try without regard to the party in power in the various 
states. Take the demand for the election of senators 
by the people; upon what does it rest? Upon the 
belief that the people have the right to and the capac- 
ity for self-government. The sentiment in favor of this 
reform has grown until a resolution proposing a con- 
stitutional amendment has passed the Lower House 
, of congress four times — twice when the house was 
democratic and twice when it was republican. This 
reform is sure to come, because the people believe in 
self-government, and they will in time insist upon 
making the government conform to their belief. 

The initiative and referendum involve the same 
principles. The initiative describes the process by 
which the people compel the submission of a ques- 
tion upon which they desire to vote, and the referen- 
dum describes the process by which they act upon a 
question submitted. In each new charter the power 
of the people is increased. Limitations are placed 
upon legislative power and new questions are sub- 
mitted to a popular vote. It is now necessary al- 
most everywhere to submit to the people of a city 
the question of issuing bonds. The movement in 
favor of submitting franchises also is an irresistible 
one, and the time will come when it will be impossible 
for councilmen to sell franchises in return for money 
paid to themselves. 

Switzerland is probably the most democratic 
country in the world. There the initiative and refer- 
endum are employed by both the federal government 
and by the local subdivisions, and the government is 



I 



238 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

completely responsive to the will of the people. 
In order to formulate a party ideal, we must have a 
theory of government as a basis, and in this country 
the fundamental principle of government is that the 
people have a right to have what they want in legis- 
lation. I made this statement in a lecture in Michigan 
and one of the audience took issue with me. He said 
that I ought to amend the statement and say that the 
people have a right to have what they want provided 
they want what is right. I asked him who would de- 
cide the question of right? And he had to admit that 
at last the decision lay with the people. Constitutions 
place limitations upon legislatures and upon the peo- 
ple themselves, but the constitutions are made by the 
people and can be changed by the people. The only 
escape from the rule of the majority is the rule of the 
minority, and if a majority make mistakes, would not 
a minority also? But mistakes made by a majority 
will be corrected when they are discovered, while 
mistakes made by a minority in power may not be 
corrected if the mistake is pecuniarily advantageous 
to those in power. The revolutions that have from 
time to time shaken the world have been caused large- 
ly by the refusal of the minority to correct mis- 
takes beneficial to those who make the mistakes but 
injurious to the people at large. Bearing in mind the 
right of the people to deliberately fix the means by 
which they will express themselves, and their right to 
place limitations upon themselves, so that they can- 
not act hastily or under a sudden impulse, I repeat 
that the people have a right to have what they want 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 239 

in legislation. If they want a high tariff, they have 
a right to it; if they want a low tariff, they have a 
right to that. They have a right to make tariff laws 
and to repeal them. They have a right to the gold 
standard if they want it, and they have a right to the 
double standard if they desire that, or if they prefer 
they can demonetize both gold and silver and substi- 
tute some other kind of money. If gold and silver 
furnish too much money, they can strike down one ; 
if the remaining metal still furnishes too much they 
can strike that down and substitute something 
scarcer. Ever since the discovery of radium, of which 
it is said there are but two pounds in the world, I 
have been fearful that an attempt would be made to 
make it the standard money of the country. But if 
the people decide to demonetize both gold and silver 
and substitute radium I will still insist that they have 
a right to do it. And then if they then decide to give 
Morgan one pound and Rockefeller the other, I shall 
still stand with the people and watch Rockefeller and 
J Morgan while they use the money. 

The people have a right to have trusts if they 
want them. They have a right to have one trust, a 
hundred trusts or a thousand, and they also have a 
right to kill every private monopoly. 

If the people have a right to have what they want, 
then the dutyof the party is plain. It is to present to 
the people a code of principles and policies to be acted 
upon by them. Who can defend the practicing of de- 
ception upon the voters? Who can justify the winning 
of a victory by false pretense ? Who can excuse a fraud 
upon the people? No one can defend a party ideal that 



240 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

does not require honesty in party contests. The policy 
of the party must be determined by the voters of 
the party, and he must have a low conception of poli- 
tical ethics who would seek by stealth to give to the 
minority of the party the authority that belongs to the 
majority. And so he must have a low conception of 
political ethics who would seek to secure for a min- 
ority of the people the authority that belongs to a 
majority. I want my party to write an honest plat- 
form, dealing candidly with the questions at issue; I 
want it to nominate a ticket composed of men who 
conscientiously believe in the principles of the party 
as ennunciated, and then I want the party to an- 
nounce to the country "These are our principles; 
these are our candidates. Elect them and they will 
carry out the principles for which they stand; they 
will not under any circumstances betray the trust 
committed to their keeping." 

This is the ideal that the democratic party ought 
J \to have and it is an ideal high enough for every party. 

There is this difference between the, ideal and 
other things of value, namely, that an ideal cannot be 
patented or copyrighted. We often see things that we 
cannot hope to possess, but there is no ideal however 
high that cannot be ours if we desire it. The high- 
est ideal of human life that this world has ever known 
was that furnished by the life of the Man of Gallilee. 
But it was an ideal within the comprehension of the 
fisherman of his day, and the Bible says of Him that 
the common people heard Him gladly. So with a 
high party ideal. It can be comprehended by all the 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 241 

members of the party, and it can be adopted by every 
party. If we can fight out political battles upon this 
plane there is no humiliation abouit defeat. I have 
passed through two presidential campaigns, and many 
have rejoiced over my defeats, but if events prove that 
my defeats have been good for this country, I shall 
rejoice over them myself more than any opponent has 
rejoiced. And when I say this I am not unselfish, for 
it is better for me that my political opponents should 
bring good to my country than that I should by any 
mistake of mine bring evil. Senator Hill of Georgia 
once said : 

"Who saves his country saves himself and all 
things saved do bless him ; who lets his country die, 
lets all things die, dies himself ignobly and all things 
dying curse him." 

This is my country. I want a good government 
while I live ; I want to leave a good government as a 
priceless legacy to my children and if my political op- 
ponents can devise for my country, my children and 
myself a better government than I can devise, they 
are not my enemies, but my friends. 

Not only must the party have an ideal, but the 
nation mujst also have its ideal, and it is the ideal of 
this nation that has made it known throughout the 
world. You will find people in foreign lands who do 
not know our population or the number of acres un- 
der our flag. You will find people who do not know 
how many cattle we raise or how much corn or cot- 
ton we export, but you will not find people anywhere 
who have not some conception of the nation's ideal. 






242 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

This ideal has been a light shining out unto all the 
world and its rays have illumined the shores of 
every land. We have boasted of this ideal in the 
past, and it must not be lowered now.- We followed 
this ideal in dealing with Cuba. It was my good for- 
tune to be in Cuba on the day when the formal trans- 
fer took place, and I never was more proud of my na- 
tion in my life than I was on the 20th day of May, 
1902, when this great republic rose superior to a great 
temptation, recognized the inalienable rights of the 
people of Cuba and secured to them the fruits of a 
victory for which they had struggled and sacrificed 
for more than a generation. We hauled down the 
flag, it is true, and in its place they raised the flag of 
the Cuban republic, but when we lowered the flag we 
raised it higher than it ever had been before, and 
when we brought it away we left it enshrined in the 
hearts of a grateful people. 

Is it the desire of any simply to make our flag 
feared? Let us rather make it loved by every human 
being. Instead of having people bow before it, let 
up have them turn their faces toward it and thank 
God that there is one flag that stands for human 
rights and for the doctrine of self-government every- 
where. There are some who say that we must now 
have the largest navy in the world in order to terrorize 
other nations, and make them respect us. But if we 
make our navy the largest in the world, other nations 
will increase their navies because we have increased 
ours, and then we will have to increase ours again, 
because they will have increased theirs, and they will 



VALUE OF AN IDEAL 243 

have to increase theirs again because we have in- 
creased ours — and there is no limit to this rivalry, but 
the limit of the power of the people to bear the bur- 
dens of taxation. There is a better, a safer and a less 
expensive plan. Instead of trying to make our navy 
the largest in the world, let us try to make our gov- 
ernment the best government on earth. Instead of 
trying to make our flag float everywhere, let us make 
it stand for justice wherever it floats — for justice be- 
tween man and man, for justice between nation and 
nation, and for humanity always. And then the people 
of the world will learn to know and to revere that flag, 
because it will be their protection as well as ours. And 
then if any king raises his hand against our flag the 
oppressed people of his own land will rise up and say 
to him "Hands off! That flag stands for our rights as 
well as the rights of the American people." It is 
possible to make our flag represent such an ideal. We 
shall not fulfill our great mission, we shall not live 
up to our high duty unless we present to the world 
the highest ideals in individual life, in domestic life, in 
business life, in professional life, in politcal life — and 
the highest national ideal that the world has ever 
known. 



A Conquering Nation 



A lecture delivered a number of times at colleges, chautauques, and 
in lecture courses 



A CONQUERING NATION. 

During national campaigns it is difficult to reach the 
sober thought of the public. When the platforms are 
adopted and the tickets nominated,the people get set in 
their ways and it is difficult to make an impression 
upon them. It is said that an old colored servant of 
Andrew Jackson, who survived his master many years, 
was asked if he thought Andrew Jackson went to 
heaven. He answered, "If he set his head that way, 
he did." During campaigns, I repeat, people get their 
heads set and are not open to conviction. I am glad, 
therefore, to speak to you between campaigns. I de- 
sire to talk to you about questions of government, but 
I want to deal with those questions in such a funda- 
mental way as not to offend political opponents. 

I am convinced that we have all given relatively 
too much time to the consideration of the pecuniary 
features of public questions, and too little time to 
the consideration of the moral principles, which under- 
lie all questions. In discussing the tariff question the 
advocates of a high tariff have tried to show that pro- 
tection puts money into the pockets of the people, and 
the advocates of a low tariff have tried to show that 
protection takes money out of the pockets of the peo- 
ple — but it has all been about money. In the discus- 
sion of the money question we have comparer! 
and systems of dollars. When we have discussed the 
trust question we have generally considered the pe- 

247 



248 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

cuniary benefit of private monopolies and the pecun- 
iary objections to them. Even the question of imper- 
ialism has been dragged down into the mire 
and cents. Instead of trying to ascertain the moral 
principle involved, we have spent too much time try- 
ing to find out whether a colonial policy would pay. 

Let me then invite your attention to certain moral 
principles which I believe to be intimately connected 
with our government. 

In looking for a subject for a non-partisan ad- 
dress some months ago, I stumbled across the word 
"Civilization." The more I thought of it the more it 
grew upon me. Have you ever tried to write a defin- 
ition of civilization? Buckle described civilization as 
measured by the mastery of the human mind over the 
forces of nature. It surprised me to find that he left 
out of consideration the moral element and I was still 
more surprised to find that he not only intentionally 
omitted the moral element, but defended the omis- 
sion by declaring that substantially the same moral 
principles had been accepted in all ages, and from this 
proposition he argued that we must measure the dif- 
ferences between peoples and races by the differences 
in their mental development. I am compelled to dis- 
sent from Buckle, and I believe that his error consists 
largely in this, — that he has measured people by the 
moral principles accepted rather than by the moral 
principles exemplified in life. If you will take the 
worst man you know and place him beside the best 
man you know, you will find that both admit the cor- 
rectness of the great moral principles that underlie 



A CONQUERING NATION 249 

society. Wherein do they differ, then? One lives 
his moral principles, and you call him an upright man, 
the other suspends them in hours of temptation, and 
you punish him as a criminal. My investigation has led 
me to believe that the moral element is not only im- 
portant but paramount in government, and that the 
decay of nations has been due to a decay in the moral 
element. A government is strong in proportion as it 
rests upon justice ; it becomes weak in proportion as 
injustice is substituted for justice. Sometimes we 
hear it said that nations, like invididuals, must neces- 
sarily decay. Some argue that, because the individual 
is born, grows strong, passes through a period of ma- 
turity and at last becomes infirm and dies, a nation 
composed of individuals must pass through the same 
stages and at last reach the same end. I deny that 
there is any analogy between the individual and the 
nation that makes it necessary for the nation to die. 
The individual must die, for death is a part of the law 
of his being, but nations, while at a given time com- 
posed of individuals, are in their history composed of 
generations. As one generation passes off the stage, 
another comes on, and, unless there is some reason 
why a future generation should be weaker or worse 
than this there is no reason why this nation should 
ever be weaker or worse than it is now. I assert, 
therefore, that there is no necessary reason why this 
nation should not be greater and more glorious a 
thousand years from now than it is now. If the time 
ever comes when this nation shall turn downward and 
at last by its wreck and ruin furnish a warning to the 



250 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

nations that come after it, it will be because of moral 
decay among the people and in our government. 

A definition ought to include every essential ele- 
ment of the thing defined and exclude everything else, 
and I have found no definition of civilization which 
seems to fill this requirement. I suggest, therefore, 
for your consideration the following definition : Civili- 
zation is the harmonious development of the human 
race, physically, mentally and morally. The word, 
socially, might be added, and yet it is difficult to con- 
ceive of an harmonious mental and moral develop- 
ment that does not include a social development, for 
a proper heart development makes one recognize the 
ties that bind him to his fellows, and a proper mental 
development leads him to employ the wisest means for 
the carrying on of the joint work of society. 

I have taken as my subject on this occasion, "A 
Conquering Nation" because I am anxious that this 
nation shall grow in strength and influence among the 
nations. I am anxious that it shall be a great nation, 
a conquering nation. I am anxious that it shall 
overcome the world. But what is the measure of na- 
tional greatness? I know of no way of measuring a 
nation except to apply to it the same moral principles 
that we apply to an individual. I will go further than 
that; I know of no moral principle that can be ap- 
plied to one human being that cannot be applied — aye, 
that must not be applied — to eighty millions of human 
beings acting together as a nation. One of the great 
dangers of the present day is the tendency to limit 
and amend and qualify great moral principles. Let me 



A CONQUERING NATION 251 

illustrate. There is a commandment which reads : 
"Thou shalt not steal." That is the way we learned 
it. It is simple and plain and strong, but it is be- 
ing amended to read "Thou shalt not steal — on a small 
scale." If the larceny is on a large scale it is dif- 
ferent. I am not revealing any secrets when I tell 
you that as a rule it is safer in this country to steal 
a million dollars than it is to steal a hundred dollars. 

The man who steals a hundred dollars is a com- 
mon ordinary thief, but if a man steals a million we are 
so amazed at his genius that we sometimes forget to 
punish his rascality. If a man steals a hundred dol- 
lars he is sure to go to the penitentiary, but if he steals 
a million it is not so certain. Nor is this the only 
commandment that is being amended. There is a 
commandment against covetousness and we all know 
that it is a sin for a man to covet a thing of small 
value, but if a nation covets the territory of another 
nation and the government of other people, it is some- 
times called patriotism and justified as providential. 
There is still another commandment that reads, "Thou 
shalt not kill." You cannot mistake its meaning ; but it 
is being amended to read that you must not kill a man 
unless he has something you want. Or if still ob- 
served as between individuals, there are some who in- 
sist that eighty millions of people may join together 
and kill eight millions in the Orient if they can extend 
the nation's trade thereby. I repeat that this tendency 
to amend and limit and qualify great moral principles 
is a dangerous tendency. There is a lesson that we 
ought to learn, — a lesson founded upon Holy Writ and 



252 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

taught by history, namely, that a nation, no matter 
how large it may be, cannot do wrong with impunity. 
It is as true of a nation as it is of an individual that 
the harvest is according to the sowing. Be not de- 
ceived because the punishment does not follow imme- 
diately upon the heels of the crime. A man may at 
fifty pay the penalty for sins committed at twenty-five ; 
so a nation may pay the penalty for sins committed a 
decade or a century before. If a nation sows the wind 
it will reap the whirlwind, though many seedtimes and 
harvests may pass between the sowing and the reap- 
ing. If your child shows a tendency to depart from the 
path of recitulde, you do not wait for him to commit 
some great crime before you correct him; you show 
him at once the tendency of his act. And so if we love 
our country and are anxious to do our duty as citi- 
zens, we must not wait until there is some flagrant 
abuse of government, or until an evil is fully devel- 
oped. We must watch the tendency of the principles 
at work. Every evil policy will bring forth evil fruit, 
and the punishment is sure to come. 

We must measure a nation's greatness as we 
would measure the greatness of an individual, and 
what is the measure of individual greatness? It is a 
laudable ambition for your boy or mine to aspire to 
become the greatest man in the state, the nation or the 
world, but he must understand the true measure of 
greatness, and to find that measure we have to go back 
to the Bible. I am not ashamed to quote from the 
Bible, for I have never found any other book which 
contains so much of truth, nor have I found any other 
book in which truth was so well expressed. You will 



A CONQUERING NATION 253 

remember that the disciples quarreled among them- 
selves as to which should be the greatest in the king- 
dom of heaven, and when they brought the question to 
the Master, he said: "Let him who would be chiefest 
among you be the servant of all." Service is the meas- 
ure of greatness. It always has been true; it is true 
today; it always will be true that he is greatest who 
does the most good. But if there is any one here who 
is not willing to accept Bible authority, I am glad 
that I can fortify this scriptural quotation with the 
testimony of the greatest of heathen philosophers. In 
the conversations of Socrates I find that he quotes 
from another Greek the story of the choice of Hercules. 
The story runs like this : iWhen Hercules was a young 
man he went out to meditate upon his course in life.and 
as he meditated two maidens appeared to him. One, in 
gaudy attire, said : "Hercules, if you will follow the 
path that I point out, your life will be a life of 
ease. You will have no troubles, no trials, no hard- 
ships ; your whole time will be occupied in the selec- 
tion of food to eat and wine to drink." Hercules said 
to her: "What is your name?" and she replied "My 
name is Pleasure, but my enemies call me vice." The 
other maiden said : "Hercules, I will not deceive you. 
If you follow the path that I point out, your life will 
be full of hardships, full of trials, full of great under- 
takings, but, Hercules, it is the path that leads to im- 
mortality. If you would have people love you, you 
must serve them ; if you would have your state honor 
you, you must confer some great benefit upon your 
state." 



254 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Thus, whether we rely upon history sacred or pro- 
fane, we find that service is the measure of greatness. 

Not only is service the measure of greatness, but 
it is the measure of happiness as well. We are happy, 
not in proportion as people do something for us, but 
in proportion as we do something for others. I ap- 
peal to your own experiences for verification. Look 
back over your lives; what days are brightest? The 
days remembered because of what others have done 
for you? No, the days that are brightest — and they 
will grow brighter with the years — are the days which 
are glorified by some generous contribution to the wel- 
fare of the world. 

If I were able to put on canvas my conception of 
a happy and a successful life, I would represent it as a 
living spring, pouring forth constantly of that which 
refreshes and invigorates and I would represent an un- 
happy and unsuccessful life as a stagnant pool receiv- 
ing contributions from all the land around and giv- 
ing forth nothing in return. It is sound philosophy 
as well as good religion to say that a life is happy in 
proportion as it abounds in helpfulness, not in propor- 
tion as it absorbs from the world. It is fortunate 
that this is true, because if one were happy in propor- 
tion as people did something for him, his happiness 
would be in the keeping of others, but if his happiness 
depends upon what he does for others, it is in his own 
keeping, and it is his own fault if he is not happy. 

Then, too, people remember better that which they 
do for others than they do that which others do for 
them. If you doubt it, go into politics- You will find 



A CONQUERING NATION 255 

that if you do something for a man he may forget it, 
but if he does something for you, he will always re- 
member it. On the evening of the day when I was first 
elected to congress, we gathered at the office of the 
chairman of the committee to receive the returns. And 
a gentleman came up to me and assured me that he 
himself had written my name on more than two hun- 
dred ballots in his voting precinct. I was amazed 
at his industry ; it was an extraordinary amount of 
work for one man to do and you can imagine my 
mortification when the returns came in from that pre- 
cinct and I found that I had not only failed to re- 
ceive any votes upon my own merits, but that I had 
apparently not been able to hold all he secured for 
me, because I had less votes in the precinct than he 
thought he had secured. Yet I have no doubt 
that the man intended to be truthful, and told only 
what he thought he had done, but the explanation is 
simple. When you look at what you do for others 
you see all that you do, and more too ; and the longer 
you look the more you see. Thus the pleasure that 
you derive from remembering it increases with the 
years. But when you look at what others do for you, 
you not only do not see all that they do, but the longer 
you look the less you see. The pleasure, therefore. 
that you derive from remembering what others do for 
you is a decreasing pleasure. 

I may add, also, that we love people in proportion 
as we serve them. I remember a little play put upon 
the stage by the senior class of the high school of our 
city. There were several characters in the play, among 



256 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

them a man, his wife and their daughter. To make the 
play natural, the daughter had a beau, and to make 
it entirely lifelike, she had two beaus, and these beaus 
were in constant rivalry for the hand of the girl. It 
so happened that the father, mother and daughter took 
a trip to Switzerland and it also happened that on 
the day of their arrival the two young men also hap- 
pened to arrive in Switzerland, and the con- 
test was continued. Soon after the arrival of the 
group the old man got into a dangerous place on a 
mountainside and one of the young men saved his 
life. Not long after that the other young man was in 
danger, and the old man saved his life. Now what was 
the result? The wife ever and anon reminded her hus- 
band how grateful he should be to the young man who 
had saved his life, but while the husband got tired of 
hearing of this, he never got tired of telling how much 
he had done for the other young man. Thus while the 
wife out of gratitude favored the young man who had 
saved her husband's life, the father formed an attach- 
ment for the young man whose life he had saved. This 
is not strange ; the Bible explains it when it says : 
"Where your treasures are, there will your heart be 
also." If you bestow your time, your interest or 
your goods upon one, your affections will follow the 
gift. The more you do for him, the more you will love 
him. If you want to love all the world, I do not know 
of any better way to bring yourself into this attitude 
than to try to do something for all the world. Why 
is it that there is nothing on earth like a mother's love? 
It is because there is no service under heaven like that 
which the mother renders to her child. 



A CONQUERING NATION 257 

But a great many people who understand that 
service measures greatness and are anxious to win 
greatness by service have mistaken the method of ser- 
vice. I have become so interested in this subect that 
I have carefully examined to see in how many differ- 
ent ways people have tried to be useful, and I have 
been surprised to find that in all the history of the 
human race, but two methods have been employed. 
The first is the forcible method, and it has been em- 
ployed most. A man has an idea which he thinks is 
good; he tells it to his neighbors and they do not like 
it. He thinks that it would be much better for them 
if they would like it, and so he starts out with a 
club to make them accept his idea. But the trouble 
about this rule is that it works both ways. If a man 
starts out with a club to make his neighbors think as 
he does, the chances are — well, at least sixteen-to-one 
— that they will employ a club in the effort to make 
him think as they do, and then they will quarrel and 
fight. They will spend so much time in trying to coerce 
each other, that they will have no time left to do each 
other good. There is just one other method, and it is 
the Bible method : "Be not overcome of evil, but over- 
come evil with good." There is no other method 
known under Heaven or among men whereby we can 
overcome evil except to substitute something better 
for it. I am not much of a farmer ; I have been given 
more credit for my farming than I deserve, and my 
little farm has received more advertising than it is 
entitled to, but I have farmed enough to know that 
if you cut down weeds they will grow again. You 
may cut them down as often as you like, but they will 



258 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

still spring up. But if you will plant something that 
has more vitality than the weeds you will not only get 
rid of the constant cutting, but you will receive the 
benefit of the crop. So I believe that the best service 
that one can render a fellow being is to give him a 
high ideal in the place of a low one. Any other help 
is temporary, but when you furnish an ideal you fur- 
nish a permanent possession and a permanent blessing, 
Let me apply this principle. Ever since that 
terrible act which took from us our chief executive 
there has been much discussion of anarchy, and many 
remedies have been suggested, but they have all been 
in the line of suppression. I want to suppress the 
manifestations of anarchy, but I am not willing to stop 
with suppression. I do not want us to make the mis- 
take that they have made in the old countries. In those 
countries in which they have simply employed sup- 
pressive measures, they have the most anarchists to- 
day. We must go further and remove the spirit of 
anarchy. There is no place in the United States for 
the spirit of anarchy. But how is this spirit to be re- 
moved? Not by suppression only — for this is but 
temporary. If we are to have a permanent remedy 
we must find it in education. We must teach the 
people that a government is necessary, for it is. We 
must teach them that our government is the best gov- 
ernment on earth, for it is ; but that is "not enough. It 
is the duty of everyone to exert himself to the utter- 
most to make- this government so good that every citi- 
zen will be willing to die, if need be, to preserve the 
blessings of this government to his children and to his 
children's children. 



A CONQUERING NATION 259 

The funeral oration of Pericles is probably with 
the exception of the oration of Demosthenes on the 
Crown, the the most famous oration that has 
come down to us from the Greeks, and the most 
impressive part of this oration presents as a reason 
for Greek patriotism the beneficience of the govern- 
ment of that country. After describing the greatness 
of his country, and the excellence of his government, 
he said: "It was for such a country then, that these 
men, resolved not to have it be taken from them, died 
fighting, and we their survivors may well be willing to 
suffer in its behalf." The remedy for anarchy is to 
make the government deserve the love of every citi- 
zen. They are doing most to cure the spirit of an- 
archy who are doing most to make the government 
perfect in all its parts ; they are doing most to culti- 
vate and spread the spirit of anarchy who pervert the 
aims of the government, rob the many for the benefit 
of the few and then curse the people who do not like 
to be robbed. A government can be a great blessing 
or a great curse. When a government takes from the 
citizen the power to redress his own wrongs, it as- 
sumes the solemn duty of protecting him from every 
arm uplifted for his injury. If a government first dis- 
arms a citizen and then leaves him to be despoiled by 
those who act under the favoritism of the government, 
the victim of the wrong, brooding over his injuries, 
will be likely to listen to the voice of the anarchist. 

If any further authority is necessary to support the 
doctrine which I am trying to present, you will find 
it in the Bible. The passage reads, "Let your light so 



260 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

shine before men, that they may see your good works 
and glorify your Father which is in Heaven." It is the 
influence of example, — it is the power that goes out 
from an upright life. There is no influence for good 
that equals the example of one who shows the world 
how to live. We have overestimated, I think, the rel- 
ative importance of the mind, and underestimated the 
relative importance of the heart in the shaping of hu- 
man happiness. When I say this do not think that I 
lack interest in education. I am an enthusiast on the 
subject of education. I am anxious that every boy 
and girl in this land shall be educated. Nothing made 
me more indignant in 1896 than the statement of an 
eminent divine who declared that the farmers' sons 
were being educated so much that they were getting 
dissatified with the position that God intended them 
to fill. God never made any man wise enough to say 
in advance what position your boy or my boy was 
intended to fill. God never made any man 
wise enough to draw a line and say that the children 
on one side should be educated and the children on 
the other side should be neglected. I want my chil- 
dren educated, but I want my neighbor's children edu- 
cated also, so that if my children lack wisdom they 
may have the benefit of the wisdom of my neigh- 
bor's children. But as enthusiastic as I am on the 
subject of education, I repeat that I think we have 
boasted too much of what the mind has done, and not 
sufficiently considered what the heart can do. We 
talk of the inventions of genius, and they have indeed 
been great. We are amazed to think that a man can 
stand by the side of the telegraph instrument and by 



A CONQUERING NATION 261 

means of the electric current talk with people ten 
thousand miles away, but if that achievement is won- 
derful, the achievements of the heart are still more 
wonderful. The heart that is full of love for its fel- 
lows, the heart that yearns to do some great good, 
the heart that puts into operation some movement 
for the uplifting of the human race, that heart will 
speak to hearts that will beat ten thousand years after 
all our hearts are still. That is more wonderful than 
talking to people ten thousand miles away. 

I go into a cemetery and I find there monuments 
reared to the dead, and they generally vary in size and 
beauty according to the amount of the estate left. 
Sometimes I find a monument reared by grateful 
hands to one whom the world calls great, but how few 
of all the countless millions of the human race will 
ever be remembered a century after their death by any 
monument that marks their resting place? I am glad 
that the Creator, as infinite in love as in power, has 
made it possible for the humblest citizen in all the 
land, if actuated by a high purpose and inspired by a 
noble zeal to rear for himself a monument that will 
endure when all the monuments of granite and of 
bronze have crumbled to dust. 

I fear the plutocracy of wealth and respect the ar- 
istocracy of learning, but I thank God for the demo- 
cracy of the heart that makes it possible for every 
human being to do something to make life worth liv- 
ing while he lives and the world better for his exist- 
ence in it. Mathematicians are able to calculate how 
far it is from the farthest star to the earth, but no 



262 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

mathematician has yet been able to, calculate the influ- 
ence for good of one kind word, or of one kind act. The 
life comes into contact with the lives about it, and 
through this generation it reaches on through the 
countless generations to come. 

This is the measure of individual greatness. No 
one will dispute that individual greatness is measured 
by service. If this is the measure of individual great- 
ness, what is the measure of national greatness? Can 
you have one rule for the individual and an entirely 
different rule for a nation composed of eighty millions 
of individuals? What is your idea of a great nation, a 
great destiny, a great mission? Do you think that 
this nation can achieve greatness by going out and 
subjugating half-civilized tribes? Do you think that 
this nation can achieve greatness by searching the 
highways and by-ways of the world in the hope of 
finding inferior people with money enough in their 
pockets to excite our avarice but without strength to 
resist our oppression ? Is that your idea of a great na- 
tion, a great destiny, a great mission? Mine goes be- 
yond it. I want this nation to influence, not the fee- 
ble races only but the strong ones as well ; I want it to 
dominate, not merely inferior races, but also superior 
ones. I want this nation to conquer the world, not 
with its armies and its navies, but with its ideas. I 
want this nation to destroy every throne on earth, not 
by force or violence, but by showing the world some- 
thing better than a throne — a government resting up- 
on the consent of the governed — strong because it is 
loved, and loved because it is good. I want this na- 



A CONQUERING NATION 263 

tion to solve the problems of this generation and by 
doing so not only bless our own people, but give life 
and hope to those who labor under greater disadvan- 
tages than we do. 

And how shall we render this service to the world? 
By a high and noble example. We have an advantage 
over all the nations of the past in that we have the 
printing press, the electric current, the steam engine 
and the steam boat. These bring all the corners of 
the earth close together, and make it possible for peo- 
ple to know everywhere what is well done anywhere. 
We have a second advantage in that we have the best 
form of religion that the world has ever known. I 
speak not now of the Godward part of our religion. I 
speak not of those commandments which tell us how 
we should behave toward our Creator. I speak rather 
of the manward side of our religion and of those com- 
mandments that deal with our conduct toward our fel- 
lows, those commandments which were condensed ip- 
to one great commandment, "Thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself." If we can succeed in exempli- 
fying this commandment in individual and national life 
we shall exert an influence for good upon the human 
race greater than all the other nations of the earth 
combined have done before. 

We have a third advantage in that we have gathered 
here the best blood of all the races of the old world. 
These people who have come to cast in their lot with 
us are still linked by ties of blood to those across the 
sea, and any improvement in the science of govern- 
ment or in the art of administration will at once be 



264 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

communicated to other lands. Our nation is, as it 
were, a city set on a hill whose light cannot be hid. 

Then we have a fourth advantage, in that we have 
the best government of which the mind of man has 
conceived. I do not mean to say that our govern- 
ment is perfect in all its details, or that it ever will be 
perfect, no matter what party is in power, for govern- 
ment, like civilization, is progressive, and while we 
should strive every day to make our government more 
and more perfect, the work of improvement will never 
be fully completed. I repeat that the government is 
not perfect. I would not jeopardize whatever reputa- 
tion I may have for truth and veracity by saying that 
the government is perfect now or will be under any 
administration. When the democrats are in power I 
can prove by all the republicans that the government 
is not perfect, and when the republicans are in power 
— well, no proof is necessary then — it is then apparent 
to us, at least, that the government is not perfect. But 
we have the best government that the world has 
known because the people can make the government 
as good as they desire to have. And as the people 
make progress in virtue and in intelligence, the gov- 
ernment reflecting the virtue and intelligence of the 
people will make progress also. But with this great 
opportunity comes a great responsibility and as our 
opportunity is greater than any other nation has ever 
enjoyed so there presses down upon American citizen- 
ship a greater responsibility than the citizens of any 
other land have ever borne. 

If we are to solve the problems that confront us 



A CONQUERING NATION 265 

we must have a rule. Nothing can be done without a 
rule. Socrates is credited with the saying that you 
cannot reason with a man until you find some propo- 
sition upon which you and he can agree, and that then 
with this as a foundation you can proceed with an 
argument. I desire to reason with you, and to do so I 
must first find some proposition so fundamental that 
we can all accept it, and so universal that we can ap- 
ply it in the discussion of all of the problems of gov- 
ernment. I find such a fundamental proposition in 
the declaration of independence, namely, that all men 
are created equal. This is declared to be a self-evident 
truth, but by that it is not meant that no one will 
dispute it. An English historian has said that if there 
was any money to be made by it, eloquent and learned 
men would be found to dispute the law of gravitation. 
No truth that ever fell from lips human or divine is 
so plain that it will not be disputed by those who 
find, or think they find, a profit in disputing it. The 
declaration that all men are created equal is a truth so 
self-evident that those who desire to dispute it must 
first attempt to misconstrue it before they dare to 
deny it. It does not mean that all men are created 
equal in physical strength ; men vary in physical 
strength, and a man's strength varies from year to 
year. It does not mean that all men are created equal 
in mental ability ; some inherit more mental ability 
than others, and some acquire superior mental ability 
by study and discipline. It does not mean that all men 
are created equal in moral worth, for moral character 
is a matter of growth. 



266 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Neither does it mean that all men are equal or can 
be equal in the possession of this world's goods, for 
if wealth is a reward of merit, it must differ in propor- 
tion to merit. Those who believe in the doctrine that 
all men are created equal are not trying to level so- 
ciety by taking from the industrious to give to the 
idle, or from the economical to give to the spendthrift. 
All that they contend for is that the law should be so 
made and the government so administered that every 
citizen will secure from society a reward proportion- 
ate to his contribution to the wellfare of society. They 
protest against measuring a civilization by the refine- 
ment and happiness of a few and plead for a civiliza- 
tion that will embrace within its benefits every deserv- 
ing member of society. 

The declaration that all men are created equal 
means that men are created equal in their natural 
rights. It means that God never gave to one human 
being a single natural right that he did not give to 
every other human being, and among these rights the 
Declaration of Independence enumerates the right to 
live, the right to liberty and the right to the pursuit of 
happiness. 

Jefferson condensed this fundamental principal of 
government into a political maxim: "Equal rights to 
all and especial privileges to none." Upon this maxim 
can you build a government ; upon no other maxim, 
can you build a government like ours. 



A CONQUERING NATION 267 

It is in the application of this principle that we 
find differences of opinion and these differences are 
sometimes due to lack of information, sometimes to 
prejudice, and sometims to real or supposed difference 
in interest. Let me apply this principle briefly to a 
few questions before the country, in order to show 
how universal is its application. I am not so anxious 
to have you accept my application of this principle as 
I am to have you make some application that will 
satisfy your own judgments and consciences. I am 
not so anxious to have you think as I think on these 
subjects as I am to have you think, because those who 
think will ultimately arrive at a correct conclusion, 
while those who refuse to think or who fail to think 
cannot assist in the solution of any great question. 

Let me apply this principle, first, to the most fa- 
miliar of all public questions, the question of taxation. 
Other questions may come and other questions may 
go, but the question of taxation, like Tennyson's 
brook, goes on and on forever. We may dispute about 
the amount to be collected and we may dispute about 
the method of collection, but the subject of taxation is 
with us always. The object to be aimed at is absolute 
justice in the collection of each citizen's share of the 
taxes. Unjust taxation is nothing less than larceny 
under the form of law for it takes from one more than 
he should pay, while it leaves in the pockets of an- 
other money that in equity belongs to the government. 
An unjust system of taxes, therefore, merely transfers 
money without right from one man's pocket to the 
pocket of another, and if the law is made by those who 



268 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

avoid burdens that they should bear and is made for 
the purpose of avoiding those burdens it is as indefen- 
sible in morals as it is from the standpoint of political 
economy. 

Is there any rule by which we can determine in 
what proportion people should pay taxes? Adam 
Smith suggested a rule a century ago but it is so just 
that it must have been thought of long before he was 
born. The rule is that citizens should contribute to 
the support of their government, in exact proportion 
to the benefits received by them from their govern- 
ment. While all will accept this as an abstract propo- 
sition, it is surprising how far we deviate from it in 
actual practice. Take the Internal Revenue Tax as 
an illustration. It is paid by those who use liquor and 
tobacco, and it is paid, not in proportion to the wealth 
of the consumers, not in proportion to their incomes ; 
and not in proportion to the amount of protection they 
receive from the government, but in proportion to 
the liquor and tobacco used; and it is needless to say 
that the poor, as a rule, contribute a larger proportion 
of their incomes than the rich to support the govern- 
ment in so far as they are taxed through the Internal 
Revenue Department. The same is true of tariff 
taxes. Import duties are laid upon what we eat and 
wear and use, and the duty, if reduced to an ad val- 
orum, is usually heaviest upon articles which the poor 
use. As people do not eat, wear clothing or use tax- 
able merchandise in proportion to their incomes, it 
will be seen that the poor contribute a larger propor- 
tion of their incomes than the rich to the support of 



A CONQUERING NATION 269 

the government in so far as the revenue is collected 
through import duties. The income tax has been 
suggested as a step toward an equalization of the bur- 
dens of government. The income tax adjusts itself 
to the man's income; if he has a small income to pay 
with, his tax is small, and if the tax is large 
it is because his income is large. While there 
is no scientifically exact means of determining 
the proportion in which people profit by the 
protection of the government, there is no safer meas- 
ure than the size of the income, and therefore, no sys- 
tem of taxes more nearly approaches justice than that 
which makes the contribution to the government pro- 
portionate to the income of the contributor. If the 
income tax were the only system of taxation in use, 
justice would require that the taxes should be levied 
upon small incomes as well as large ones, but, when 
the system is used in connection with an Internal 
Revenue system, which over-burdens the poor, and in 
connection with a tariff system, which also over- 
burdens the poor, justice requires that small incomes 
be made exempt from the income tax in order that the 
total taxes may be equitably distributed. 

Let us apply this maxim to the trust question. In 
opposing what are called trusts, the line ought to be 
drawn at the private monopoly; that is, the govern- 
ment should prohibit the existence of any corporation 
large enough to exercise a controlling influence upon 
the production or price of a commodity. Up to this 
point, combinations of capital may be defended or 
criticised, for there are arguments on both sides, but 



270 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

when a combination of capital reaches a point where 
it is able to control either the product or the price to 
be demanded, so that the consumer is at the mercy of 
this one producer, then the corporation, being a mon- 
opoly, becomes indefensible and intolerable. It does 
not require an extended knowledge of history to en- 
able one to condemn a private monopoly, although 
history furnishes an abundance of incontrovertable 
proof. All that one needs to know is human nature 
and the rules which he applies in every-day life. No 
one would be willing to try a case before a judge who 
was a party to the suit, neither would any one be 
willing to try a case before a jury whose members 
were pecuniarily interested in the result of the suit. 
In the case of a private monopoly, the consumer is 
compelled to try his case before a tribunal composed 
of the men in charge of the trust and they are pecun- 
iarily interested in deciding against him. If we are 
to destroy the monopoly, it must be by an attack upon 
the principle and not by an attack upon those mon- 
opolies which are most offensive or whose managers 
show the least conscience. If monopolies are to be 
destroyed, it must be upon the maxim of "equal rights 
to all and special privileges to none." This maxim 
is violated when the country is delivered into the 
hands of men who have a pecuniary interest in ex- 
torting as much as possible regardless of the services 
rendered by them. When there is competition, the 
consumer has protection; when there is no competi- 
tion, the consumer is almost sure to be plundered — he 
cannot afford to rely upon the mercy of an occasional 
benevolent trust magnate. 



A CONQUERING NATION 271 

The principle for which we are contending must 
be applied to the labor question also, and nowhere is 
this application more necessary at this time. In deal- 
ing with the labor question, the recognition of equal 
rights to all is essential. The right of the laboring 
man to a trial by jury is as sacred as the right of 
other members of society to a trial before a jury of 
peers. This right is denied by government by injunc- 
tion. The right of laboring men to reasonable hours 
ought to be observed as sacredly as the right of other 
members of society to reasonable hours. If we rec- 
ognize as we do the necessity for hours of recreation 
for ourselves and families, we ought not to begrudge 
these hours to those who toil at less pleasant and 
more fatiguing work. If we desire an income that 
will relieve our children from the necessity of labor 
while they are young, we should not forget that the 
laborer has the same interest in his children and that 
society, too, has a right to demand that they should 
be so cared for and so educated that they can, when 
grown, give to their country the highest and most 
efficient service. At this time, one of the most im- 
portant questions in connection with labor is the 
question of arbitration, and it is becoming more and 
more apparent that a peaceful adjustment of the dif- 
ferences between corporations and their employes is 
as necessary to the welfare of society at large as it 
is to the laboring man. There is no more reason why 
a laboring man should be compelled to fight out his 
differences with his employer by strike or boycott 
than there is for compelling citizens to abandon 



272 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

courts of justice and settle their differences with each 
other personally. "Equal rights to all and special 
privileges to none" must therefore be observed in 
the settlement of the problems that affect employe 
and employer. 

Even the money question can be settled by this 
Jeffersonian maxim, and it can be settled in no other 
way. There is but one kind of dollar that can be de- 
fined as an ideal dollar and that is the stable dollar — 
the dollar that does not change in its average purchas- 
ing power. The most fundamental principle in the 
science of money is that a dollar is good in propor- 
tion as its average purchasing power is fixed and 
unchanging. The second is that the value of a dol- 
lar, other things being equal, depends upon the num- 
ber of dollars — an increase in the volume of money de- 
creasing the purchasing power of the dollar, a decrease 
in the volume of money increasing the purchase power 
of the dollar. Sometimes "an honest dollar" has 
been defined as a dollar which does not suffer loss 
in melting, but no one who has any knowledge of the 
science of money would attempt to defend the "melt- 
ing-pot test" as a test of honest money. Whether a 
dollar can be melted without loss is entirely due to 
the law. If the law provides, as it does, that 25 8-10 
grains of standard gold can be coined into a dollar 
without charge then the melting of a dollar does not 
destroy any of its value, because it can be immediately 
recoined without loss. If, however, the law fixed a 
coinage charge, then the dollar would lose value to 
the extent of that coinage charge because that amount 



A CONQUERING NATION 273 

would have to be added to the melted gold to con- 
vert it into a coined dollar. At present, a gold dollar 
ean be melted without loss because it can be recoined 
without charge ; a silver dollar cannot be melted with- 
out loss because when melted it cannot be recoined at 
all. For about twenty-four years after 1873, the cru- 
sade against silver resulted in a constant rise in the 
purchasing power of the dollar and a constant fall in 
the value of property as measured by money. It was 
to check this fall and to restore the parity between 
money and property that bimetallists throughout the 
world contended for the remonetization of silver. Since 
1896, an increase in the production of gold has 
brought in part what the restoration of bimetallism 
would have brought in a greater measure, but con- 
ditions have been so unusual since 1896 that it is not 
yet possible to tell whether the equilibrium between 
money and property has been restored, neither is it 
possible to calculate for how long a period the new 
gold supplies will be sufficient. It is certain that 
the quantity of money in circulation must constantly 
increase in order to keep pace with population and 
business, and, whenever the supply of money fails to 
keep pace with the demand for it, we shall always 
have an era of rising dollars and falling prices, and 
the term "falling-prices" is but another term for busi- 
ness depression and hard times. Only by recogniz- 
ing the doctrine of equal rights to all and special 
privileges to none can we hope to reach an adjust- 
ment of the money question that will be permanent, 
for no adjustment can be regarded as permanent that 
does not do justice as between man and man. 



874 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

But while I am anxious that we shall apply the doc- 
trine of "equal rights to all and special privileges to 
none" to all our domestic questions and thus settle 
them rightly, both for our own good and for the 
example of others, I am also anxious that we shall 
apply this doctrine in our dealings with foreign 
nations; for they will recognize the principle much 
more clearly when it is applied to international ques- 
tions than when it is applied to our domestic pro- 
blems. Just now we are being watched much more 
closely than usual. (We are on the witness-stand, 
and our testimony will either strengthen the doctrine 
of self-government everywhere or weaken it through- 
out the world. There are but two theories of govern- 
ment—in all history, no others have been suggested. 
These are, first, that governments derive their just 
powers from the consent of the governed, and, sec- 
ond, that governments rest upon force. If govern- 
ment by what is called divine right seems to be a 
third, it is not really so. It is only a subdivision of 
the second form, for no king can assert a divine right 
to rule, unless he has a force superior to any one who 
contests his right. 

In dealing with Cuba, we recognized the inalien- 
able right of the people of Cuba to liberty and inde- 
pendence. We cannot deny the equally inalienable 
right of the people of the Philippines to liberty and 
self government without a departure from our theory 
of government. And in dealing with the Philippine 
question, we must determine whether our nation is 
to be a physical force ruling where it can and defending 



A CONQUERING NATION 276 

its rule by the arguments used in defense of monarch- 
ies or whether we shall be a moral force ruling 
where we do rule by the consent of the governed and 
influencing others by the force of our example. If 
the Filipinos desired to become a part of our people 
we might make them citizens but for the race ques- 
tion which it would raise — and we have enough race 
trouble now — but to hold them as colonies, to tax them 
without representation and govern them without the 
consent of the governed would mean a return to dog- 
mas of arbitrary power which our forefathers success- 
fully resisted. 

If we have faith in the truths set forth in the 
Declaration of Independence and there said to be 
self-evident; if we have faith in the triumph of these 
truths ; if we have faith in the influence of a high and 
holy example; if we have faith in the Christian doc- 
trine of the triumph of righteousness, we will not sub- 
stitute war and conquest for the peaceful progress of 
the past. 

This nation should be a great nation, a conquering 
nation. It should overcome the world. How? By 
following the precept given in Holy Writ: "Be not 
overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." 



The Attractions of 
Farming 



Written for and copyrighted by The Saturday Evsning Post, Phila- 
delphia, and reproduced by courtesy of that journal 



THE ATTRACTIONS OF FARMING. 

Before mentioning the modern improvements 
which add to the comfort of farm life, the agricultur- 
ist's place in the nation's economy and the advantages 
offered by the farm deserve attention. Of all the toil- 
ers the tiller of the ground is in closest touch with 
Mother Earth. He learns the secrets of Nature, 
watches the seasons, and is the alchemist at whose 
touch base soil is transmuted into golden grain, grass 
into milk and meat, and rainfall into the syrup of the 
cane. He feeds the world and clothes it as well. If 
the farmers by concerted action were to take a year's 
vacation, the trader, the artisan, the teacher and the 
members of the learned professions would soon be pe- 
titioning upon bended knees for their return to work. 
Those who are content to live without considering the 
source whence come the necessaries of life scarcely 
realize how dependent they are upon the farmer's brain 
and muscle. If the steak is tender it is because the 
farmer has by a wise selection cultivated good breeds, 
raised nutritious food, and, despite the heat or cold, 
brought the food in proper quantity and proportion to 
the animals whose flesh supplies the table. The flour 
in the bread is made from wheat that has to be sown 
and harvested, threshed and delivered at the railway 
station before it passes between the stones at the mill. 
The sugar that sweetens the tea and the coffee has its 
story to tell of the farmer's care and constancy, while 

279 



280 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

the early vegetables testify to his vigilance and in- 
dustry. And yet many who "fare sumptuously every 
day" give little thought to the farmer's labors. 

Not only is the farmer the firm foundation upon 
which all other classes rest/ but his vocation gives the 
broadest training to the threefold man. If civilization 
can be denned as the harmonious development of the 
human race, physically, mentally and morally, then 
agriculture is truly a civilizing agency. The field is 
better equipped than the gymnasium with the appli- 
ances necessary for physical training. All the muscles 
of the body are brought into play, and the air has a 
freshness and a wholesomeness that no system of ven- 
tilation can provide. The resident of the city finds 
that his daily exercise not <,nly costs him money but 
costs him time, and he ofte ntakes it grudgingly and 
from a sense of duty. The farmer finds his exercise 
both useful and profitable. In the city there is little 
that a boy can do; on the farm there is employment for 
persons of every age — employment that does not over- 
tax their strength and need not trespass upon their 
school hours. 

That the farm gives a good foundation for men- 
tal training is evident to any one who has compared 
the school records of country boys with the school 
records of the boys in the cities. Habits of applica- 
tion, of industry and of thoroughness in school come 
naturally enough to one who has been trained to farm 
work. Not only does the farm furnish mental athletes 
for the city, but the average farmer possesses more 
information of general value than the average resident 
of a city. If he has not always read the latest fiction 



ATTRACTIONS OF FARMING 281 

or the most sensational criminal news, he has gen- 
erally read something fully as useful. The long even- 
ings of the winter, the rainy days of the summer, and 
the Sabbath days throughout the year give him many 
hours for reading, and while at work he has more time 
for meditation and for the digestion of what he reads 
than those employed at other kinds of labor. 

He is not afflicted with insomnia nor troubled 
with nervous prostration. He has the "sound mind in 
the sound body" which has been sought in every age. 

To an even greater extent is the farmer's occupa- 
tion conducive to moral development. Bondaref, a 
Russian author much praised by Tolstoy, says : "It is 
physically impossible that true religious knowledge or 
pure morality should exist among any classes of a na- 
tion who do not work with their hands for their bread." 
To the farmer the miracle is of daily occurrence. 
The feeding of a multitude with a few loaves 
and fishes cannot mystify one who every spring 
watches the earth's awakening and estimates the mil- 
lions who are to be supplied by the chemistry of the 
vegetable. Resurrection and immortality are easily 
understood by one who sees a harvest spring from 
buried grain, and the fruits of a new birth are easily 
comprehended by one who has watched the earth grow 
verdant beneath the smiles of a summer's sun. The 
parables of Christ, taken from every-day life, make 
plain to the farmer the Divine philosophy. He reads 
of the sower, and his own experience furnishes a par- 
allel. He knows, too, how a tiny seed can grow into a 
great tree, and he has seen the tares side by side with 
the wheat. He is often called upon to exercise pa- 



282 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

tience with the barren tree, and his faith increases as 
he follows the blade through all the stages of its de- 
velopment until he sees "the full corn in the ear." 

The farmer, while gathering the fruits of his labor 
and enriching himself by adding to the world's wealth, 
learns the true basis of rewards. He learns to give a 
dollar's worth of work for a dollar's worth of product, 
and when he not only produces something, but im- 
proves the methods of production, he feels the satis- 
faction that comes when one makes a genuine contri- 
bution to the general welfare. The farmer feels a sense 
of proprietorship in the product of his labor that is not 
felt by one who produces as an employee or through 
an employee. It is this sense of proprietorship and 
independence that makes one feel, as he grows older, 
an increasing desire to own his own home, and to have 
enough land about him to give rest to his body, quiet 
to his mind and peace to his soul. 

The child raised upon the farm has the advantage 
of occupation, and a great advantage it is — for "Satan 
finds some mischief still for idle hands to do" — and is 
shielded from the allurements of the city while good 
habits are being acquired and character is being 
formed. 

It is not that farm life is without its temptations, 
but the influence of the father, the mother and the 
home have a greater field for operation, and parental 
authority is not here so strained to counteract the 
force of outside currents. 

Did you ever go through a crowded tenement 
quarter on Sunday afternoon or at twilight in sum- 
mer? One's heart aches at the sight of the thousands 



ATTRACTIONS OF FARMING 88* 

of little children whose only playground is the side- 
walk and whose conceptions of an all-loving and merci- 
ful Heavenly Father must be dwarfed and deformed 
by the squalor and unhappiness about them. They 
breathe the dust-ladened and soot-poisoned air, and 
while this enfeebles their bodies, their minds and 
hearts are exposed to the contagion of the street and 
the alley. 

Even in the cultivation of a taste for the aesthetic 
the country has its advantages. As some one has ex- 
pressed it, "God made the country, man made the 
town." There is a beauty in the handiwork of the 
Almighty which it is the pride of man to approach but 
not within his power to reach. A country landscape, 
with its hues that change with the seasons, cannot be 
transferred to paper or to canvas. Those who live 
their lives on narrow streets and have their vision lim- 
ited by lofty walls miss the glowing tints of the dawn 
and the rich colorings that streak the west at sunset. 
They know not the invigorating breezes of the early 
morning, the music of the birds, or the lowing of the 
contented kine at nightfall. The cut flowers from the 
hothouse are not a perfect substitute for the buds that 
are cultivated by members of the family, and that seem 
to shed a richer fragrance because they are home 
grown and represent a care that can be measured. 

The most laborious forms of farm labor, consider- 
ing the quantity of work to be done, are plowing and 
harvesting grain, hay and corn. The riding plow has 
robbed one form of its excessive fatigue, the self- 
binder has supplanted the cradle, and the mower has 
taken the place of the scythe, while more recently the 



284 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

corn-cutter has not only lightened the work of gath- 
ering corn, but has made it possible to postpone the 
husking until winter, besides making it easier to save 
the fodder. 

With improved breeds the pleasure of handling 
stock is largely increased. There is a satisfaction in 
raising the best kinds of cattle and the best speci- 
mens of the various breeds. Take the shorthorn, for 
instance — one of the best, if not the best, of all-pur- 
pose breeds. One takes a pardonable pride in ex- 
hibiting such an animal and learns to admire its 
points of superiority. The shorthorn cow, giving, as 
she does, a fair quantity of milk of good quality and 
raising large and easily-fattened calves, is a favorite 
with the small farmer. If to the herd a few Jerseys 
can be added the housewife rejoices in still richer 
milk. The Polled Jersey now has an association of its 
own and bids fair to rival the Jersey with horns. If 
one desires to add a dairy to his farm the Holstein is 
found valuable because of the quantity of milk given, 
while the Hereford, the Galloway and the Polled An- 
gus are popular with the range. 

Hogs, though not noted for that virtue which is 
said to be next to godliness, are a necessary and pro- 
fitable adjunct to the farm. They grow into money 
more rapidly than any other kind of stock, and excite 
an interest which their greediness cannot entirely de- 
stroy. The Poland China has long been a popular 
breed and still contests for public favor with the 
Durocas, the Berkshires and the Chester Whites. 

Even more fascinating, if possible, is the poultry 
department of the farm. The numerous breeds give 



ATTRACTIONS OF FARMING 285 

a wide range for taste, and no one can attend a poul- 
try show without being convinced that the cultivation 
of barnyard fowls — they are called "birds" if they 
are of a fine breed — not only furnishes an enjoyable oc- 
cupation but yields in the aggregate an enormous an- 
nual product. The Plymouth Rock is probably the 
most popular of the dual purpose fowls, although I 
think the White Wyandottes preferable, possibly for 
aesthetic rather than economic reasons, the white 
chickens looking well against a background of green 
grass, clover or alfalfa. 

I have mentioned but two branches of farm work ; 
the raising of stock (cattle and hogs) and the care 
of poultry. Many farmers make a specialty of horses 
— driving horses, riding horses, draft horses or race 
horses. Then the various kinds of crops furnish an op- 
portunity for experiments and investigation, while 
the garden is the pride of every rural household. 

Horticulture is the handmaid of Agriculture and 
occupies a position of increasing importance. He who 
plants a tree plans for the future and gives evidence 
of his interest in posterity. Nor is such labor entirely 
unselfish, for fruit, grapes and berries, not travel-worn 
but fresh and wholesome, are a part of the farmer's 
reward. But enough has been said to indicate the 
breadth of the field that opens before one who is con- 
tent to exchange honest labor for the products of the 
soil. 

The agricultural colleges have made wonderful 
strides during recent years, and, with the experi- 
ment stations, are greatly extending the scientific 
knowledge of the young men who are preparing them- 



S86 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

selves for farm life. As these trained men establish 
themselves and begin to apply their knowledge we 
may expect to see the farms and farmhouses better 
cared for, the fertility of the soil better preserved by 
a rotation of crops, the stock better selected and better 
fed, and the yield of the farm increased by wise ar- 
rangement of the work. The agricultural experiment 
stations are becoming an important part of the govern- 
ment's co-operative work. The expense of their ex- 
periments is borne by all and the results are free to 
all. In the case of an invention the patentee is given 
a monopoly for a term of years as a reward of his 
contribution to the welfare of society; sometimes the 
reward is exorbitant, and it often goes to speculators 
who advance money upon the patent, rather than to 
the patentee. Where encouragement is given to an 
industry by a bounty or tariff it is often given through 
favoritism and can be withdrawn only with great 
difficulty, but at the experiment stations the work 
is done by public officials for the benefit of the public. 
There is a political reason just now why the work 
of the agricultural colleges should be heartily encour- 
aged. The interests of the farmer have been neglected 
by the government. Though the farmer has to pay 
more than his share of the taxes, measured by his in- 
come, the annual appropriations for the army and 
navy are at present more than thirty times as great 
as the appropriation for the agricultural department. 
The members of congress are nearly all residents of 
the cities, and, without intending it, they naturally 
give more attention to the needs of the cities than to 
the needs of the rural districts. Though this is true 



ATTRACTIONS OF FARMING 287 

to a less extent of State officials and State Legisla- 
tures, still, even here the country does not have a 
representation in proportion to its voting strength. 
The better education of those who intend to farm will 
have a tendency to increase the proportion of farmer 
statesmen and to enlarge the agriculturist's share in 
the management of the Government. Prince Bis- 
marck was a few years ago quoted as saying that the 
farmers must stand together and "protect themselves 
against the drones of society who produce nothing 
but laws." It is certainly true that the non-producers 
produce more law than the producers of wealth. The 
rapidly increasing interest taken in the work of ag- 
ricultural colleges gives promise of a salutary change 
in this respect. 

These colleges are also destined to perform an 
important work in teaching the dignity of labor. It 
has been too much the custom to regard the academy 
and the college as established for the professional 
classes only, and farm work has too frequently beea 
left to those with inferior educational advantages. 
With better instruction and more complete college 
training the farmers of the next generation will em- 
phasize the fact that an intelligent acquaintance with 
manual labor qualifies rather than unfits one for un- 
derstanding the great industrial and social problems 
that press for solution. Tolstoy attributes most of the 
estrangement between the classes to lack of sym- 
pathy, and believes that sympathy can best be culti- 
vated by a return to bread-labor — the primary strug- 
gle with Nature — each one doing enough manual labor 
to produce his own bread. If Tolstoy is correct, then 



288 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

the industrial schools in the cities and the agricultural 
colleges ought to exert a powerful influence in recon- 
ciling and harmonizing labor and capital. 

A number of influences are at work which tend 
to add greatly to the attractiveness and enjoyment of 
country life, without robbing it of its distinctive ad- 
vantages. The rural delivery, in addition to its great 
convenience, has already increased the amount of mail 
sent and received by farmers. The postal check and 
the extension of the parcel post will still further con- 
tribute to his welfare. The telephone lessens by one- 
half the anxious hours of suspense between sickness 
or accident and the arrival of relief, besides putting 
the farmer into immediate communication with the 
telegraph office and with his neighbors. He can now 
arrange his shipments with less risk and can effect 
a considerable saving in time. The electric lines are 
bringing cheap and rapid transit to an ever-increasing 
proportion of the population and are destined to in- 
crease the value of suburban property at the expense 
of the tenement-house and the flat. Joint high 
schools, rural libraries and the delivery of children to 
and from the schoolhouse are improving the educa- 
tional facilities in the country. The good roads move- 
ment is destined still further to augment the farmer's 
comfort and well-being by raising the mud embargo 
and making the carrying of crops possible, and social 
intercourse easier, during the wet months. 

The manufacture of acetylene and other kinds of 
gas has been so perfected that it is possible for the 
farmer to equip his home at small expense with 



ATTRACTIONS OF FARMING 289 

light equal to the gas of the cities, and the experiments 
now being made with alcohol give promise of a time 
when the prairie states can convert their corn and po- 
tatoes into alcohol and supply themselves with a 
material suitable for heating and illumination. With 
alcohol freed from the tax and made unfit for drinking, 
the Mississippi Valley will be quite independent of 
the oil trust and the anthracite coal trust. 

The greatest convenience in city life is the water 
supply in the house. No woman who has enjoyed 
for a time the luxury of running water in the house 
can quite adjust herself to the old way of bringing 
water from the well of cistern. It is not surprising 
therefore, to find a rapidly increasing number of farm- 
ers equipping their homes with a water system that 
furnishes water for the sink, the bathtub and the 
closet. For some time the tank in the attic was the 
only means of distributing water through the house, 
but the compressed air tank is rapidly taking its place. 
The attic tank, because of the possibility of freezing in 
the winter and leakage at any time, was always a 
source of anxiety. The compressed air tank can be 
placed in the basement, or outside underground, and 
answers every purpose. (Where the tank is placed 
under-ground it is best to have a space around it suf- 
ficient to permit inspection and repair.) In the prai- 
rie states the windmill is now employed to fill the 
tank, and when geared to work automatically the 
pressure can be kept at any point desired. Now that 
to the former advantages of the country home the con- 
veniences of the city are being added, we may ex- 
pect a reversal of the tendency toward an increase in 



290 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

the proportion of the urban population. If the tide 
turns, as it seems likely to, and the congestion of 
the city is relieved by the settling of adjacent fields 
and the reclamation of arid lands, it is difficult to es- 
timate fully the effect upon the country. The muni- 
cipal problems which are absorbing so much attention 
the problems of sociologoy and the problems of gov- 
ernment in general, will be made easier, and the foun- 
dation will be laid for a higher and more enduring 
national life. The bringing of the extremes of so- 
ciety nearer together and the cultivation of a more 
cordial, fraternal feeling will not be the least of the 
blessings to be hoped for from the improvements that 
are making farming more attractive and country life 
more inviting. 



Peace 



Address Delivered by Mr. Bryan before the Holland 
Society, New York City. January, 1904 



PEACE 

Mr. President, Members of the Holland Society, 
Ladies and Gentlemen: 

I esteem it a great privilege to be here. I re- 
ceived this invitation while I was in Europe, and 
your President sent me a book telling what has been 
done by the society and reproducing some of the 
speeches that had been made. He also gave me the 
names of some of the distinguished men who, in times 
past, h&vea^gfflf^ J^iq re tn * s - ? - Qc . J3i JiKar ^ * s a 
"ffaf "Sfray of distinguished names, and as I looked 
over them and saw how they represented different 
elements of our national life and recalled different 
characteristics of the early settlers, I wondered if in 
the selection you had not tried to find men living to- 
day who in some way would remind you of the great 
men among the Dutch. For instance, I see that Sen- 
ator Depew of New York has spoken here, and I feel 
sure that he was invited because he can make as good 
a bargain as Peter Minuit who bought the island from 
the Indians. And then I see that the President has 
been here. It has been suggested that he was selected 
because he recalled the strenuousnss of Peter Stuy- 
vesant. I do not know why I was invited, unless my 
reticence might have suggested William the Silent. 

f[ accepted your invitation gladly, because I know 
bservation that one can learn much more by see- 
298 



294 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

ing things than by reading about them. I had read 
of the way the early Dutch lived here, and I wanted 
to come in order that I might have an object-lesson, 
for, of course, your banquet here is made as much 
as possible like the dinners that they had upon Man- 
hattan in the early days. I can almost see those 
Dutch now, and I can hear them, or I thought I 
heard them when I heard the rattle of your wooden 
shoes upon the floor. But, do you know, I have been 
wondering since I came if a part of the history of 
these early settlers had not been left untql.dj We all 
know that the English came one time and took pos- 
session. Now, I have been among the English lately, 
and I cannot believe that they would do anything so 
impolite, at least those whom I met were not, I am 
sure, responsible or anything very bad. And this 
is the way I explain it: The Dutch were eating then, 
as you are eating now; they had a sumptuous repast, 
and the English, learning of it, were simply unable to 
withstand the temptation to take possession of the 
tables. And if the Dutch who were at the tables, 
felt as little like fighting as I do now, they did not 
make a very vigorous resistance. But as soon as 
they had time to digest their food and rest a little, 
they went and took back the tables from the En- 
glish. I am saisfied that that accounts for the tem- 
porary cession of Manhattan Isla nd. ) I am glad to 
be here, glacf to see you, and glad to learn just how 
they did in those days, for I think I understand the 
Dutch better now than I did when I simply read 
about them. 



PEACE 295 

I have enjoyed the speeches made, only I am a 
little embarrassed by the compliments paid by my 
good friend, (Mr. Beck,) and I think I understand 
now why he apologized for what he was going to 
say. He knew he was going to speak so well that he 
would have to apologize for it, or it would seem un- 
fair to me. As I listened to him, I could not help 
thinking of the excuse a Chinese editor once gave for 
rejecting a manuscript that some one sent in — it was 
probably from "Pro Bono Publico," "Constant 
Reader," or "Veritas." The editor sent it back, say- 
ing that he was unwilling to publish it because it 
was of so high an order of merit that it would set a 
standard of excellence that no one else could approach 
and that it would, therefore, cause a good deal of dis- 
satisfaction in the country. I am afraid that Mr. Beck 
has set such a high standard of oratory here that it 
will be very difficult for myself and for the speakers 
at future Holland Society dinners to rise to his stan- 
dard. Another thing, I am embarrassed by the fact 
that both he and my friend Dr. Lorimer over here 
touched on politics. I do not like to have anybody 
touch on politics when I come last. I do not know 
how I am going to withstand the temptation to talk 
politics unless I retaliate on Brother Lorimer; as he, 
a preacher, made a political speech, I, somewhat in 
politics, may preach a sermon. 

[y subject is Peace, and I have been thinking 
about it, especially since the trip that I made to the 
Netherlands. I am not going to speak here of the 
wonderful bravery of those people, a bravery exem- 
plified all through their history, a bravery of which 



296 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

we had a recent illustration, when a handful of them 
down in South Africa made such a heroic fight for 
their political existence. While they failed there, they 
brought blessings to liberty-loving people everywhere, 
for they made a war of conquest so expensive that no 
nation in the near future will attempt to take inde- 
pendence from a republic, however small. 

I have been thinking of the progress made by 
the inhabitants of the Netherlands, how they have 
rescued their lands from the seas and won their vic- 
tory over Neptune. I was interested in the quaint cit- 
ies there, in their hundreds of canals and their leaning 
buildings. I was interested in all that I saw, but I 
was impressed most by the fact that the Netherlands 
is to furnish the site for the Temple of Peace soon 
to be erected; that on that soil, reddened by the 
blood of an Eighty Years' War, will rise the perma- 
nent home of the Arbitration Court. At The Hague 
I recalled the long struggle for freedom of conscience, 
for freedom of speech, and for constitutional govern- 
ment, and rejoiced that at last the fragrant flower of 
peace had appeared upon the thorny stalk of war. I 
am glad that an American citizen has contributed the 
money that makes it possible for this building to be 
erected in a place so well fitted for it. And as I 
thought of little Holland — little among the nations 
and yet great in contests where mind and heart con- 
trol — I recalled the words of the Prophet of old, who 
foretold an era of peace so universal and so pro- 
found that to emphasize it he pictured it as extending 
even to the animals, and said that the wolf would 
dwell with the lamb, that the leopard would He down 



PEACE 297 

with the kid, that the calf, the lion, and the fatling 
would keep company together, and that a little child 
should lead them. Are our eyes to witness the fulfil- 
ment of this prohpecy? 

In a forum where right prevails and where dis- 
putes are settled, not by armed force but by reason, 
a little nation like the Netherlands can enter into an 
honorable rivalry with her more populous neighbors. 
But this has not come all at once. It has been of grad- 
ual growth, as all things are of gradual growth that 
are strong and lasting. The trees that are able to 
withstand the storms mature slowly, and so do great 
movements. 

"Heaven is not gained by a single bound; 
We build the ladder by which we rise 
From the lowly earth to the vaulted skies, 

And mount its sumit round by round." 

So with reforms; it takes time to work them 
out. We need not expect that the nations will disband 
their armies at once; we need not expect that all dif- 
ficulties will be taken before the Court of Arbitration ; 
but we have reason to believe that the light of a better 
day is dawning, and that we are about to enter upon 
an era in which conscience will assert its supremacy 
over brute force, and the crown of victory be awarded, 
not to the nation that has the largest army or the 
strongest navy, but to the nation that sets the best ex- 
ample and contributes most to the welfare of the 
world. 

Sometimes when we see the war spirit rampant, 
we are tempted to say with the poet, 



298 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

"Right forever on the scaffold, 
Wrong forever on the throne. ' ; 

but in such hours we can draw inspiration and en- 
couragement from Holy Writ. When Elijah was flee- 
ing from the wrath of wicked Jezebel and believed all 
the prophets to have been slain, the Lord commanded 
him to stand upon the mountain, and as he stood 
there, a mighty wind swept by him and rent the 
rocks asunder, but God was not in the wind ; and after 
the wind came an earthquake, but God was not in 
the earthquake; and after the earthquake, a fire, but 
God was not in the fire ; and after the fire, a still, small 
voice, and it was the voice of God. And so, to-day, 
throughout the world an increasing number, standing 
upon the heights, are coming to believe that God is 
not in the ironclads that sweep the ocean with their 
guns, that God is not in the armies that shake the 
earth with their tread, or in the fire of musketry, but 
in the still, small voice of justice that issues from tri- 
bunals like that instituted at The Hague. There have 
been times when bravery upon the battlefield was con- 
sidered the highest form of virtue. There have been 
times when intellectual supremacy and intellectual in- 
dependence were considered all-sufficient, but the time 
is coming when heart characteristics will re- 
ceive the attention that they deserve ; time is 
coming when we shall not define civilization as 
Buckle defined it, "as measured by the mastery of 
the human mind over the forces of nature," but shall 
define it as the harmonious development of the hum- 
an race, physically, mentally and morally. The time 
is coming when physical perfection alone will not sat- 



PEACE 299 

isfy, when intellectual training alone will not be suf- 
ficient, but when the spiritual man will be considered 
and his welfare guarded. I believe that we are to 
build this permanent peace, this permanent arbitration, 
not upon a plutocracy of wealth or upon an aristocracy 
of learning, but upon the democracy of the heart. We 
shall then arraign every evil at the bar of the public 
conscience, for the most potent force of which man has 
personal knowledge is the conscience. That con- 
science can be awakened, and when awakened, its gen- 
tle promptings are more imperative than statute laws, 
and the invisible barriers which it builds around us are 
stronger than prison walls. 

It is to this conscience that nations today appeal 
when they appear before The Hague tribunal. One 
of the members of that tribunal told me that he was 
interested to note that the great nations represented 
there by counsel spend their time, not in discussing 
their pecuniary loss or gain, but in defending their 
honor. 

It is impossible to overestimate the influence of 
this appeal to conscience. As has been well said to- 
night by China's distinguished Ambassador, the sug- 
gestion of this Peace Conference presented by the 
Emperor of Russia was not a new discovery ; it simply 
gave expression to a sentiment that had been growing 
in the hearts of people all over the world. And this 
appeal to conscience must be made in this country 
as well as in our international relations. We com- 
plain not at the great development of the last century ; 
we complain rather that the moral sense has not kept 
pace with industrial expansion. We are, as it were, 



300 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

trying to guide a great ship with the apparatus that 
was scarcely sufficient for a smaller one. It is like 
equipping the Celtic with the rudder made for the 
Half-Moon. It is necessary that the moral sense 
shall be addressed; and when my friend here (Mr. 
Beck) mentioned the Labor Organization as a menace, 
I feel like suggesting another danger, more menac- 
ing, I think, than any organization of men who are 
earning their bread in the sweat of the brow. 

I refer to the conscienceless organizations of cap- 
ital that plunder stockholders and patrons, and defy 
the law. More dangerous, too, than any labor organi- 
zation is the use of money in elections, money that 
has debauched our politics and made the purchase of 
votes common upon the street. Men sell franchises 
and legislate for the great corporation. The use of 
money in elections is, to my mind, a far greater men- 
ace to this country than anything that comes from 
the organization of laboring men. And what is the 
remedy for labor troubles? The same remedy that 
we are to employ in international politics. It is not to 
fight among ourselves ; it is not to abuse each other ; 
it is to appeal to the conscience of the people — the 
most potent force, I repeat, of which we have knowl- 
edge. 

I saw at Rome the great Colosseum, and I re- 
called the time when the Christian martyrs were 
dragged into the arena and devoured by the wild 
beasts. We are told that, when they entered the 
arena, they assembled in the centre, raised their hands 
to heaven, and prayed and sang until life was extinct. 
How helpless they seemed to be! How irresistible 



PEACE 301 

seemed the forces arrayed against them ! And yet 
those people, upon their bended knees, invoked a 
power stronger than the legions of Rome, and it was 
only a few decades before their prayers were an- 
swered — before their doctrine of love overwhelmed 
the doctrine of force that had consigned them to their 
death. 

I found in Russia a peasant philosopher preach- 
ing the gospel of love. He lives in a land where they 
have almost a million soldiers. They do not allow 
some of his articles to be published ; they will banish 
people for circulating them ; they stop at the border 
those who attempt to carry them printed into the 
country; and yet the doctrine of that apostle of love 
has so touched the hearts of the people of the world 
that, while they may punish the people who circulate 
what he says, they do not lay their hands upon the 
man himself. What does it mean? It means just what 
has been said by Carlyle, that thought is stronger 
than artillery parks, and that back of every great 
thought is love. I believe that this movement to sub- 
stitute reason for force in the settlement of differences 
between nations rests upon love, upon an all-pervad- 
ing love, upon a love that must in the end triumph. If 
we build in this country, we must build upon that 
foundation. If you ask me if there is any doctrine 
that will bring peace in this country, I reply that it is 
the doctrine, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy- 
self," and that that is the only peace-insuring doc- 
trine. Can you bring peace by attacking laborers' or- 
ganizations ? See what they have done ; give credit for 
what they have accomplished. Do not simply blame 



302 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

them for their errors; give them credit for their 
achievements. They have given us the Australian 
ballot, which allows an American citizen to vote ac- 
cording to the dictates of his own conscience and re- 
lieves him from the fear of being driven to the polls 
by his employer. Give them credit for thus maintain- 
ing the dignity of American citizenship. Give them 
credit for having decreased the hours of labor. Do 
you think it is unjust that the hours of labor should 
be decreased? We try to take care of our own chil- 
dren — try to take care of them well. When we look 
after ourselves we try to do it well. If we drive 
the laboring man from his bed to his work, and then 
drive him back from his work to his bed, what time is 
he going to have for the cultivation of his mind and 
the development of his heart? These men are Ameri- 
can citizens. In time of war we need them, and a 
man who is fit to die for his country, ought to be per- 
mitted to live for it and enjoy life in it. These are 
the people who produce the wealth of this nation. 
These are the people upon whom our nation rests 
both in peace and in war. Why not give them justice? 
Why not deal with them as you would deal with 
brothers? The labor organizations are trying to pro- 
hibit child labor in factories. Go into the factories 
and see the children at work, bent Deneath their 
cares, and when you remember that you permit this 
dwarfing of their minds and dwarfing of their bodies, 
this destroying of their chances for life, ask yourself 
if you would permit it in the case of your own chil- 
dren; and if not, remember that these children are 
made in the image of God as your children are, and 



PEACE 303 

that you must love them as you love your own chil- 
dren. 

I came here to speak of peace, international 
peace, a peace that will bring together the nations of 
the earth, a peace that will give us the substitution of 
reason and right for force and might. But I am 
willing to apply that doctrine to my own country, and 
I am willing to apply it to every question. You, who 
boast of our descent from the brave Dutch ; you, who 
boast that in your veins is the blood of a noble ances- 
try; I appeal to you to meet these questions with the 
heroism that your ancestors displayed. If they were 
willing to die for their rights, are you not willing to 
respect the rights of others as well as to defend your 
own? There is something that is greater than dying 
for one's own rights. That is great, but I am looking 
for the time when there will be something greater yet, 
a civilization beyond any that we have yet seen, a 
civilization in which the greatest citizen will be, not 
the man who will die in defense of his own rights, but 
the man who will die rather than trespass upon the 
rights of another. 

Upon this foundation only can we build peace, 
peace among citizens and peace among nations. 
Peace must rest on love, and every question that af- 
fects us must be decided not by the way it affects the 
pocketbook, but as it is determined by the conscience 
— that prompter which we all have with us if we will 
but listen to it. 

I am very grateful, my friends, for this opportun- 
ity to speak to you. 



304 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

I did not have much chance to speak to some of 
you during the campaign/' You thought that those 
who talked as I talked, were enemies of yours; we 
were not. You thought we wanted to injure you ; we 
did not. You thought that we were radical ; we were 
not; we were conservative; we were not advocating 
retaliation; we were simply asking that our institu- 
tions be built on justice. Beware of those who come 
afterward — of the radicals who will not be content to 
stop a wrong, but will want to go back and get re- 
venge for what has been done. I appeal to you to 
meet these questions, and if you love peace, do not 
love it in Holland only; love it in America. If you 
love peace, seek the foundation upon which it rests. 
You will find that when the Nazarene's coming was 
announced to the Shepherds who kept their flocks by 
night, it was "Peace on earth, good will towards men." 
How can you have peace without good will toward 
men? I appeal to you to consider the true foundation 
of peace, here and everywhere, and you will find in 
the recognition of the rights of your fellows a higher 
happiness and a greater satisfaction than can be found 
in a shortsighted selfishness that trespasses upon the 
rights of another, whether that other person be a 
merchant or a laboring man. 






Imperialism 

Speech Delivered by Mr. Bryan in response to the Committee 
appointed to notify him of his nomination to the presi- 
dency, at Indianapolis, August 8, 1900. 



IMPERIALISM. 

Mr. Chairman and Members of the Notification 
Committee : I shall, at an early day, and in a more 
formal manner accept the nomination which you ten- 
der, and I shall at that time discuss the various ques- 
tions covered by the Democratic platform. It may 
not be out of place, however, to submit a few obser- 
vations at this time upon the general character of the 
contest before us and upon the question which is de- 
clared to be of paramount importance in this cam- 
paign. 

When I say that the contest of 1900 is a contest 
between Democracy on the one hand and plutocracy 
on the other I do not mean to say that all our oppon- 
ents have deliberately chosen to give to organized 
wealth a predominating influence in the affairs of the 
Government, but I do assert that on the important is- 
sues of the day the Republican party is dominated by 
those influences which constantly tend to substitute 
the worship of mammon for the protection of the 
rights of man. 

In 1859 Lincoln said that the Republican party 
believed in the man and the dollar, but that in case of 
conflict it believed in the man before the dollar. This 
is the proper relation which should exist between the 
two. Man, the handiwork of God, comes first; 
money, the handiwork of man, is of inferior impor- 

307 



308 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

tance. Man is the master, money the servant, but 
upon all important questions today Republican legisla- 
tion tends to make money the master and man the 
servant. 

The maxim of Jefferson, "equal rights to all and 
special privileges to none," and the doctrine of Lin- 
coln that this should be a government "of the people, 
by the people and for the people," are being disre- 
garded and the instrumentalities of government are 
being used to advance the interests of those who 
are in a position to secure favors from the 
Government. 

The Democratic party is not making war upon the 
honest acquisition of wealth ; it has no desire to dis- 
courage industry, economy and thrift. On the con- 
trary, it gives to every citizen the greatest possible 
stimulus to honest toil when it promises him protec- 
tion in the enjoyment of the proceeds of his labor. 
Property rights are most secure when human rights 
are most respected. Democracy strives for civiliza- 
tion in which every member of society will share ac- 
cording to his merits. 

No one has a right to expect from a society more 
than a fair compensation for the services which he 
renders to society. If he secures more it is at the 
expense of some one else. It is no injustice to him 
to prevent his doing injustice to another. To him 
who would, either through class legislation or in the 
absence of necessary legislation, trespass upon the 
rights of another the Democratic party says, "Thou 
shalt not." 



IMPERIALISM 309 

Against us are arayed a comparatively small but 
politically and financially powerful number who really 
profit by Republican policies; but with them are as- 
sociated a large number who, because of their attach- 
ment to their party name, are giving their support to 
doctrines antagonistic to the former teachings of their 
own party. 

Republicans who used to advocate bimetallism 
now try to convince themselves that the gold standard 
is good; Republicans who were formerly attached to 
the greenback are now seeking an excuse for giving 
national banks control of the nation's paper money; 
Republicans who used to boast that the Republican 
party was paying off the national debt are now 
looking for reasons to support a perpetual and 
increasing debt; Republicans who formerly ab- 
horred a trust now beguile themselves with the 
delusion that there are good trusts, and bad 
trusts, while in their minds, the line between 
the two is becoming more and more obscure ; Republi- 
cans who, in times past, congratulated the country 
upon the small expense of our standing army, are 
now making light of the objections which are urged 
against a large increase in the permanent military es- 
tablishment ; Republicans who gloried in our indepen- 
dence when the nation was less powerful now look 
with favor upon a foreign alliance; Republicans who 
three years ago condemned "forcible annexation" as 
immoral and even criminal are now sure that it is both 
immoral and criminal to oppose forcible annexation. 
That partisanship has already blinded many to present 
dangers is certain; how large a portion of the Re- 



310 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

publican party can be drawn over to the new policies 
remains to be seen. 

For a time Republican leaders were inclined to 
deny to opponents the right to criticise the Philippine 
policy of the administration, but upon investigation 
they found that both Lincoln and Clay asserted and 
exercised the right to criticise a President during the 
progress of the Mexican war. 

Instead of meeting the issue boldly and submit- 
ting a clear and positive plan for dealing with the 
Philippine question, the Republican convention 
adopted a platform the larger part of which was de- 
voted to boasting and self-congratulation. 

In attempting to press economic questions upon 
the country to the exclusion of those which involve the 
very structure of our government, the Republican 
leaders give new evidence of their abandonment of 
the earlier ideals of their party and of their complete 
subserviency to pecuniary considerations. 

But they shall not be permitted to evade the stu- 
pendous and far-reaching issue which they have de- 
liberately brought into the arena of politics. When 
the president, supported by a practically unanimous 
vote of the House and Senate, entered upon a war 
with Spain for the purpose of aiding the struggling 
patriots of Cuba, the country, without regard to par- 
ty, applauded. 

Although the Democrats realized that the ad- 
ministration would necessarily gain a political advan- 
tage from the conductof a war which in the verynature 
of the case must soon end in a complete victory, they 
vied with the Republicans in the support which they 



IMPERIALISM 311 

gave to the president. When the war was over and 
the Republican leaders began to suggest the propriety 
of a colonial policy opposition at once manifested it- 
self. 

When the President finally laid before the Senate 
a treaty which recognized the independence of Cuba, 
but provided for the cession of the Philippine Islands to 
the United States, the menace of imperialism became 
so apparent that many preferred to reject the treaty 
and risk the ills that might follow rather than take the 
chance of correcting the errors of the treaty by the 
independent action of this country. 

I was among the number of those who believed it 
better to ratify the treaty and end the war, release 
the volunteers, remove the excuse for war expenditures 
and then give the Filipinos the independence which 
might be forced from Spain by a new treaty. 

In view of the criticism which my action aroused 
in some quarters, I take this occasion to restate the 
reasons given at that time. I thought it safer to 
trust the American people to give independence to the 
Filipinos than to trust the accomplishment of that pur- 
pose to diplomacy with an unfriendly nation. 

Lincoln embodied an argument in the question 
when he asked, "Can aliens make treaties easier than 
friends can make laws?" I believe that we are now in 
a better position to wage a successful contest against 
imperialism than we would have been had the treaty 
been rejected. With the treaty ratified a clean-cut is- 
sue is presented between a governmnet by consent and 
a government by force, and imperialists must bear the 



312 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

responsibility for all that happens until the question is 
settled. 

If the treaty had been rejected the opponents of 
imperialism would have been held repsonsible for any 
international complications which might have arisen 
before the ratification of another treaty. But whatever 
difference of opinion may have existed as to the best 
method of opposing a colonial policy, there never was 
any difference as to the great importance of the ques- 
tion and there is no difference now as to the course to 
be pursued. 

The title of Spain being extinguished we were at 
liberty to deal with the Filipinos according to Ameri- 
can principles. The Bacon resolution, introduced a 
month before hostilities broke out at Manila, prom- 
ised independence to the Filipinos on the same terms 
that it was promised to the Cubans. I supported this 
resolution and believe that its adoption prior to the 
breaking out of hostilities would have prevented blood- 
shed, and that its adoption at any subsequent time 
would have ended hostilities. 

If the treaty had been rejected considerable time 
would have necessarily elapsed before a new treaty 
could have been agreed upon and ratified and during 
that time the question would have been agitating the 
public mind. If the Bacon resolution had been adopted 
by the senate and carried out by the president, either 
at the time of the ratification of the treaty or at any 
time afterwards, it would have taken the question of 
imperialism out of politics and left the American people 
free to deal with their domestic problems. But the 



IMPERIALISM 313 

resolution was defeated by the vote of the republican 
vice-president, and from that time to this a repubican 
congress has refused to take any action whatever in 
the matter. 

When hostilities broke out at Manila republican 
speakers and republican editors at once sought to lay 
the blame upon those who had delayed the ratification 
of the treaty, and, during the progress of the war, the 
same republicans have accused the opponents of im- 
perialism of giving encouragement to the Filipinos. 
This is a cowardly evasion of responsibility. 

If it is right for the United States to hold the 
Philippine Islands permanently and imitate European 
empires in the government of colonies, the republican 
party ought to state its position and defend it, but it 
must expect the subject races to protest against such 
a policy and to resist to the extent of their abiity. 

The Filipinos do not need any encouragement 
from Americans now living. Our whole history has 
been an encouragement not only to the Filipinos, but 
to all who are denied a voice in their own government. 
If the republicans are prepared to censure all who 
have used language calculated to make the Filipinos 
hate foreign domination, let them condemn the 
speech of Patrick Penry. When he utttered that 
passionate appeal, "Give me liberty or give me death," 
he expressed a sentiment which still echoes in the 
hearts of men. 

Let them censure Jefferson ; of all the statesmen 
of history none have used words so offensive to those 
who would hold their fellows in political bondage. Let 



314 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

them censure Washington, who declared that the col- 
onists must choose between liberty and slavery. Or, 
if the statute of limitations has run again the sins of 
Henry and Jefferson and Washington, let them censure 
Lincoln, whose Gettysburg speech will be quoted in 
defense of popular government when the present advo- 
cates of force and conquest are forgotten. 

Some one has said that a truth once spoken, can 
never be recalled. It goes on and on, and no one can 
set a limit to its ever-widening influence. But if it 
were possible to obliterate every word written or 
spoken in defense of the principles set forth in the 
Declaration of Independence, a war of conquest would 
still leave its legacy of perpetual hatred, for it was God 
himself who placed in every human heart the love of 
liberty. He never made a race of people so low in the 
scale of civilization or intelligence that it would wel- 
come a foreign master. 

Those who would have this nation enter upon a 
career of empire must consider not only the effect of 
imperialism on the Filipinos, but they must also calcu- 
late its effects upon our own nation. We cannot re- 
pudiate the principle of self-government in the Philip- 
pines without weakening that principle here. 

Lincoln said that the safety of this nation was not 
in its fleets, its armies, or its forts, but in the spirit 
which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all 
lands, everywhere, and he warned his countrymen 
that they could not destroy this spirit without plant- 
ing the seeds of despotism at their own doors. 

Even now we are beginning to see the paralyzing 
influence of imperialism. Heretofore this nation has 



IMPERIALISM 31§ 

been prompt to express its sympathy with those who 
were fighting for civil liberty. While our sphere of 
activity has been limited to the western hemisphere, 
our sympathies have not been bounded by the seas. 
We have felt it due to ourselves and to the world, as 
well as to those who were struggling for the right to 
govern themselves, to proclaim the interest which our 
people have, from the date of their own independence, 
felt in every contest between human rights and arbi- 
trary power. 

Three-quarters of a century ago, when our nation 
was small, the struggles of Greece aroused our people, 
and Webster and Clay gave eloquent expression to the 
universal desire for Grecian independence. In 1896 all 
parties manifested a lively interest in the success of 
the Cubans, but now when a war is in progress in 
South Africa, which must result in the extension of the 
monarchical idea, or in the triumph of a republic, the 
advocates of imperialism in this country dare not say 
a word in behalf of the Boe*s. 

Sympathy for the Boers does not arise from any 
unfriendliness towards England ; the American people 
are not unfriendly toward the people of any nation. 
This sympathy is due to the fact that, as stated in our 
platform, we believe in the principles of self-govern- 
ment and reject, as did our forefathers, the claims of 
monarchy. If this nation surrenders its belief in the 
universal application of the principles set forth in the 
Declaration of Independence, it will lose the prestige 
and influence which it has enjoyed among the nations 
as an exponent of popular government. 



316 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Our opponents, conscious of the weakness of their 
cause, seek to confuse imperialism with expansion, and 
have even dared to claim Jefferson as a supporter of 
their policy. Jefferson spoke so freely and used lan- 
guage with such precision that no one can be ignorant 
of his views. On one ocasion he declared: "If there 
be one principle more deeply rooted than any other in 
the mind of every American, it is that we should have 
nothing to do with conquest." And again he said: 
"Conquest is not in our principles; it is inconsistent 
with our government." 

The forcible annexation of territory to be gov- 
erned by arbitrary power differs as much from the 
acquisition of territory to be built up into states as a 
monarchy differs from a democracy. The democratic 
party does not oppose expansion when expansion en- 
larges the area of the republic and incorporates land 
which can be settled by American citizens, or adds to 
our population people who are willing to become citi- 
zens and are capable of discharging their duties as 
such. 

The acquisition of the Louisiana territory, Florida, 
Texas and other tracts which have been secured from 
time to time enlarged the republic and the constitution 
followed the flag into the new territory. It is now pro- 
posed to seize upon distant territory already more 
densely populated than our own country and to force 
upon the people a government for which there is no 
warrant in our constitution or our laws. 

Even the argument that this earth belongs to those 
who desire to cultivate it and who have the physical 



IMPERIALISM 217 

power to acquire it cannot be invoked to justify the 
appropriation of the Philippine islands by the United 
States. If the islands were uninhabited American 
citizens would not be willing to go there and till the 
soil. The white race will not live so near the equator. 
Other nations have tried to colonize in the same lati- 
tude. The Netherlands have controlled Java for three 
hundred years and yet today there are less than sixty 
thousand people of European birth scattered among 
the twenty-five million natives. 

After a century and a half of English domination 
in India, less than one-twentieth of one per cent of the 
people of India are of English birth, and it requires 
an army of seventy thousand British sodiers to take 
care of the tax collectors. Spain had asserted title to 
the Philippine islands for three centuries and yet when 
our fleet entered Manila bay there were less than ten 
thousand Spaniards residing in the Philippines. 

A colonial policy means that we shall send to the 
Philippine islands a few traders, a few taskmasters and 
a few officeholders and an army large enough to sup- 
port the authority of a small fraction of the people 
while they rule the natives. 

If we have an imperial policy we must have a 
great standing army as its natural and necessary com- 
plement. The spirit which will justify the forcible an- 
nexation of the Philippine islands will justify the seiz- 
ure of other islands and the domination of other peo- 
ple, and with wars of conquest we can expect a certain 
if not rapid, growth of our military establishment. 

That a large permanent increase in our regular 
army is intended by republican leaders is not a matter 



318 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

of conjecture, but a matter of fact. In his message of 
December 5, 1898, the president asked for authority to 
increase the standing army to 100,000. In 1896 the 
army contained about 25,000. Within two years the 
president asked for four times that many, and a repub- 
lican house of representatives complied with the re- 
quest after the Spanish treaty had been signed, and 
when no country was at war with the United States. 

If such an army is demanded when an imperial 
policy is contemplated, but not openly avowed, what 
may be expected if the people encourage the republican 
part)' - by indorsing its policy at the polls ? 

A large standing army is not only a pecuniary 
burden to the people and, if accompanied by compul- 
sory service, a constant source of irritation, but it is 
ever a menace to a republican form of government. 

The army is the personification of force, and mili- 
tarism will inevitably change the ideals of the people 
and turn the thoughts of our young men from the arts 
of peace to the science of war. The government which 
relies for its defense upon its citizens is more likely 
to be just than one which has at call a large body of 
professional soldiers. 

A small standing army and a well-equipped and 
well-disciplined state militia are sufficient at ordinary 
times, and in an emergency the nation should in the 
future as in the past place its dependence upon the 
volunteers who come from all occupations at their 
country's call and return to productive labor when 
their services are no longer required — men who fight 
when the country needs fighters and work when the 
country needs workers. 



IMPERIALISM 319 

The republican platform assumes that the Philip- 
pine islands will be retained under American sover- 
eignty, and we have a right to demand of the republi- 
can leaders a discussion of the future status of the 
Filipino. Is he to be a citizen or a subject? Are we to 
bring into the body politic eight or ten million Asiatics, 
so different from us in race and history that amalga- 
mation is impossible? Are they to share with us in 
making the laws and shaping the destiny of this na- 
tion? No republican of prominence has been bold 
enough to advocate such a proposition. 

The McEnery resolution^ adopted by the senate 
immediately after the ratification of the treaty, ex- 
pressly negatives this idea. The democratic platform 
describes the situation when it says that the Filipinos 
cannot be citizens without endangering our civiliza- 
tion. Who will dispute it? And what is the alterna- 
tive? If the Filipino is not to be a citizen, shall we 
make him a subject? On that question the democratic 
patform speaks with equal emphasis. It declares that 
the Filipino cannot be a subject without endangering 
our form of government. A republic can have no sub- 
jects. A subject is possible only in a government rest- 
ing upon force ; he is unknown in a government deriv- 
without consent and taxation without representation. 

The republican platform says that "the largest 
measure of self-government consistent with their wel- 
fare and our duties shall be secured to them (the Fili- 
pinos) by law." This is a strange doctrine for a gov- 
ernment which owes its very existence to the men who 
offered their lives as a protest against government 



320 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

witohut consent and taxation without representation. 

In what respect does the position of the republi- 
can party differ from the position taken by the English 
government in 1776 ? Did net the English government 
promise a good government to the colonists? What 
king ever promised a bad government to his people? 
Did not the English government promise that the col- 
onists should have the largest measure of self-govern- 
ment consistent with their welfare and English duties ? 
Did not the Spanish government promise to give to the 
Cubans the largest measure of self-government con- 
sistent with their welfare and Spanish duties? ^JThe 
whole difference between a monarchy and a republic 
may be summed up in one sentence. In a monarchy 
the king gives to the people what he believes to be a 
good government; in a republic the people secure for 
themseves what they believe to be a good government. 

The republican party has accepted the European 
idea and planted itself upon the ground taken by 
George III., and by every ruler who distrusts the ca- 
pacity of the people for self-government or denies them 
a voice in their own affairs. 

The republican platform promises that some meas- 
ure of self-government is to be given the Filipinos by 
law ; but even this pledge is not fulfilled. Nearly six- 
teen months elapsed after the ratification of the treaty 
before the adjournment of congress last June and yet 
no law was passed dealing with the Philippine situa- 
tion. The will of the president has been the only law 
in the Philippine islands wherever the American au- 
vthority extends. 



IMPERIALISM 321 

Why does the republican party hesitate to legis- 
late upon the Philippine question? Because a law 
would disclose the radical departure from history and 
precedent contemplated by those who control the re- 
publican party. The storm of protest which greeted 
the Porto Rican bill was an indication of what may be 
expected when the American people are brought face 
to face with legislation upon this subject. 

If the Porto Ricans, who welcomed annexation, 
are to be denied the guarantees of our constitution, 
what is to be the lot of the Filipinos, who resisted our 
authority? If secret influences could compel a disre- 
gard of our plain duty toward friendly people, living 
near our shores, what treatment will those same influ- 
ences provide for unfriendly people 7,000 miles away? 
If, in this country where the people have a right to 
vote, republican leaders dare not take the side of the 
people against the great monopolies which have grown 
up within the last few years, how can they be trusted 
to protect the Filipinos from the corporations which 
are waiting to exploit the islands? 

Is the sunlight of full citizenship to be enjoyed by 
the people of the United States, and the twilight of 
sejni-citizenship endured by the people of Porto Rico, 
while the thick darkness of perpetual vassalage covers 
the Philippines? The Porto Rico tariff law asserts the 
doctrine that the operation of the constitution is con- 
fined to the forty-five states. 

The democratic party disputes this doctrine and 
denounces it as repugnant to both the letter and spirit 
of our organic law. There is no place in our system 



322 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

of government for the deposit of arbitrary and irre- 
sponsible power. That the leaders of a great party 
should claim for any president or congress the right to 
treat millions of people as mere "possessions" and deal 
with them unrestrained by the constitution or the bill 
of rights shows how far we have already departed from 
the ancient landmarks and indicates what may be ex- 
pected if this nation deliberately enters upon a career 
of empire. 

The territorial form of government is temporary 
and preparatory, and the chief security a citizen of a 
territory has is found in the fact that he enjoys the 
same constitutional guarantees and is subject to the 
same general laws as the citizen of a state. Take away 
this security and his rights will be violated and his 
interests sacrificed at the demand of those who have 
political influence. This is the evil of the colonial sys- 
tem, no matter by what nation it is applied. 

What is our title to the Philippine islands? Db 
we hold them by treaty or by conquest? Did we buy 
them or did we take them? Did we purchase the peo- 
ple? If not, how did we secure title to them? Were 
they thrown in with the land? Will the republicans 
say that inanimate earth has value but that when that 
earth is molded by the divine hand and stamped with 
the likeness of the Creator it becomes a fixture and 
passes with the soil? If governments derive their just 
powers from the consent of the governed, it is impos- 
sible to secure title to people, either by force or by 
purchase. 



IMPERIALISM 323 

We could extinguish Spain's title by treaty, but 
if we hold title we must hold it by some method con- 
sistent with our ideas of government. When we made 
allies of the Filipinos and armed them to fight against 
Spain, we disputed Spain's title. If we buy Spain's 
title we are not innocent purchasers. 

There can be no doubt that we accepted and util- 
ized the services of the Filioinos, and that when we 
did so we had full knowledge that they were fighting 
for their own independence, and I submit that history 
furnishes no example of turpitude baser than ours if 
we now substitute our yoke for the Spanish yoke. 

Let us consider briefly the reasons which have 
been given in support of an imperialistic policy. Some 
say that it is our duty to hold the Philippine islands. 
But duty is not an argument; it is a conclusion. To 
ascertain what our duty is, in any emergency, we must 
apply well settled and generally accepted principles. It 
is our duty to avoid stealing, no matter whether the 
thing to be stolen is of great or little value. It is our 
duty to avoid killing a human being, no matter where 
the human being lives or to what race or class he 
belongs. 

Every one recognizes the obligation imposed upon 
indivduals to observe both the human and the moral 
law, but as some deny the application of those laws 
to nations, it may not be out of place to quote the 
opinions of others. Jefferson, than whom there is no 
higher political authority, said : 

"I know of but one code of morality for men, 
whether acting singly or collectively." 



324 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Franklin, whose learning, wisdom and virtue are 
a part of the priceless legacy bequeathed to use from 
the revolutionary days, expressed the same idea in even 
stronger language when he said: 

"Justice is strictly due between neighbor nations 
as between neighbor citizens. A highwayman is as 
much a robber when he plunders in a gang as when 
single ; and the nation that makes an unjust war is only 
a great gang." 

Many may dare to do in crowds what they would 
not dare to do as individuals, but the moral character 
of an act is not determined by the number of those who 
join it. Force can defend a right, but force has never 
yet created a right. If it was true, as declared in the 
resolutions of intervention, that the Cubans "are and 
of right ought to be free and independent" (language 
taken from the Declaration of Independence), it is 
equally true that the Filipinos "are and of right ought 
to be free and independent." 

The right of the Cubans to freedom was not based 
upon their proximity to the United States, nor upon 
the language which they spoke, nor yet upon the race 
or races to which they belonged. Congress by a prac- 
tically unanimous vote declared that the principles 
enunciated at Philadelphia in 1776 were still alive and 
applicable to the Cubans. Who will draw a line be- 
tween the natural rights of the Cubans and the Fili- 
pinos? Who will say that the former has a right to 
liberty and that the latter has no rights which we are 
bound to respect? And, if the Filipinos "are and of 
right ought to be free and independent," what right 



IMPERIALISM 325 

have we to force our government upon them without 
their consent? Before our duty can be ascertained 
their rights must be determined, and when their rights 
are once determined it is as much our duty to respect 
those rights as it was the duty of Spain to respect the 
rights of the people of Cuba or the duty of England to 
respect the rights of the American colonists. Rights 
never conflict ; duties never clash. Can it be our duty 
to usurp political rights which belong to others? Can 
it be our duty to kill those who, following the example 
of our forefathers, love liberty well enough to fight 
for it? 

A poet has described the terror which overcame a 
soldier who in the midst of the battle discovered that 
he had slain his brother. It is written "All ye are 
brethren." Let us hope for the coming day when 
human life — which when once destroyed cannot be 
restored — will be so sacred that it will never be taken 
except when necessary to punish a crime already com 
mitted, or to prevent a crime about to be commtited ! 

It is said that we have assumed before the world 
obligations which make it necessary for us to perma- 
nently maintain a government in the Philippine islands. 
I reply first, that the highest obligation of this nation 
is to be true to itself. No obligation to any particular 
nations, or to all the nations combined, can require the 
abandonment of our theory of government, and the 
substitution of doctrines against which our whole na- 
tional life has been a protest. And, second, that our 
obligation to the Filipinos, who inhabit the islands, is 
greater than any obligation which we can owe to for- 



326 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

eigners who have a temporary residence in the Philip- 
pines or desire to trade there. 

It is argued by some that the Filipinos are incap- 
able of self-government and that therefore, we owe it 
to the world to take control of them. Admiral Dewey, 
in an official report to the navy department, declared 
the Filipinos more capable of self-government than the 
Cubans and said that he based his opinion upon a 
knowledge of both races. But I will not rest the case 
upon the relative advancement of the Filipinos. Henry 
Clay, in defending the right of the people of South 
America to self-government, said: 

"It is the doctrine of thrones that man is too ig- 
norant to govern himself. Their partisans assert his 
incapacity in reference to all nations; if they cannot 
command universal assent to the proposition, it is then 
demanded to particular nations ; and our pride and our 
presumption too often make converts of us. I con- 
tend that it is to arraign the disposition of Providence 
himself to suppose that He has created beings incap- 
able of governing themselves, and to be trampled on 
by kings. Self-government is the natural government 
of man." 

Clay was right. There are degrees of proficiency 
in the art of self-government, but it is a reflection upon 
the Creator to say that he denied to any people the 
capacity for self-government. Once admit that some 
people are capable of self-government and that others 
are not and that the capable people have a right to 
seize upon and govern the incapable, and you make 
force — brute force — the only foundation of govern- 



IMPERIALISM 327 

ment and invite the reign of a despot. I am not willing 
to believe that an all-wise and an all-loving God 
created the Filipinos and then left them thousands of 
years helpless until the islands attracted the attention 
of European nations. 

Republicans ask, "Shall we haul down the flag 
that floats over our dead in the Philippines?" The 
same question might have been asked when the Amer- 
ican flag floated over Chapultepec and waved over the 
dead who fell there ; but the tourist who visits the City 
of Mexico finds there a national cemetery owned by 
the United States and cared for by an American citi- 
zen. Our flag still floats over our dead, but when the 
treaty with Mexico was signed American authority 
withdrew to the Rio Grande, and I venture the opinion 
that during the last fifty years the people of Mexico 
have made more progress under the stimulus of inde- 
pendence and self-government than they would have 
made under a carpet-bag government held in place by 
bayonets. The United States and Mexico, friendly 
republics, are each stronger and happier than they 
would have been had the former been cursed and the 
latter crushed by an imperialistic policy disguised as 
"benevolent assimilation." 

"Can we not govern colonies?" we are asked. The 
question is not what we can do, but what we ought to 
do. This nation can do whatever it desires to do, but 
it must accept responsibility for what it does. If the 
constitution stands in the way, the people can amend 
the constitution. I repeat, the nation can do whatever 
it desires to do, but it cannot avoid the natural and 
legitimate results of its own conduct. 



328 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

The young man upon reaching his majority can 
do what he pleases. He can disregard the teachings of 
his parents ; he can trample upon all that he has been 
taught to consider sacred; he can disobey the laws of 
the state, the laws of society and the laws of God. He 
can stamp failure upon his life and make his very ex- 
istence a curse to his fellow men and he can bring his 
father and mother in sorrow to the grave ; but he can- 
not annul the sentence, "The wages of sin is death." 

And so with the nation. It is of age and it can do 
what it pleases ; it can spurn the traditions of the past ; 
it can repudiate the principles upon which the nation 
rests ; it can employ force instead of reason ; it can 
substitute might for right; it can conquer weaker peo- 
ple; it can exploit their lands, appropriate their prop- 
erty and kill their people; but it cannot repeal the 
moral law or escape the punishment decreed for the 
violation of human rights. 

"Would we tread in the paths of tyranny, 
Nor reckon the tyrant's cost? 
Who taketh another's liberty 
His freedom is also lost. 

Would we win as the strong have ever won, 
Make ready to pay the debt, 
For the God who reigned over Babylon 
Is the God who is reigning yet." 

Some argue that American rule in the Philippine 
islands will result in the better education of the Fili- 
pinos. Be not deceived. If we expect to maintain a 



IMPERIALISM 329 

colonial policy, we shall not find it to our advantage to 
educate the people. The educated Filipinos are now in 
revolt against us, and the most ignorant ones have 
made the least resistance to our domination. If we are 
to govern them without their consent and give them 
no voice in determining the taxes which they must pay, 
we dare not educate them, lest they learn to read the 
Declaration of Independence and the constitution of 
the United States and mock us for our inconsistency. 

The principal arguments, however, advanced by 
those who enter upon a defense of imperialism are : 

First — That we must improve the present oppor- 
tunity to become a world power and enter into inter- 
national politics. 

Second — That our commercial interests in the 
Philippine islands and in the Orient make it necessary 
for us to hold the islands permanently. 

Third — That the spread of the Christian religion 
will be facilitated by a colonial policy. 

Fourth — That there is no honorable retreat from 
the position which the nation has taken. 

The first argument is addressed to the nation's 
pride and the second to the nation's pocket-book. The 
third is intended for the church member and the fourth 
for the partisan. 

It is sufficient answer to the first argument to say 
that for more than a century this nation has been a 
world power. For ten decades it has been the most 
potent influence in the world. Not only has it been a 
world power, but it has done more to affect the politics 
of the human race than all the other nations of the 



330 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

world combined. Because our Declaration of Inde- 
pendence was promulgated others have been promul- 
gated. Because the patriots of 1776 fought for liberty- 
others have fought for it. Because our constitution 
was adopted other constitutions have been adopted. 

The growth of the principle of self-government, 
planted on American soil, has been the overshadowing 
political fact of the nineteenth century. It has made 
this nation conspicuous among the nations and given it 
a place in history such as no other nation has ever en- 
joyed. Nothing has been able to check the onward 
march of this idea. I am not willing that this nation 
shall cast aside the omnipotent weapons of truth to 
seize again the weapons of physical warfare. I would 
not exchange the glory of this republic for the glory of 
all the empires that have risen and fallen since time 
began. 

The permanent chairman of the last republican 
national convention presented the pecuniary argument 
in all its baldness when he said : 

"We make no hypocritical pretense of being in- 
terested in the Philippines solely on account of others. 
While we regard the welfare of those people as a sa- 
cred trust, we regard the welfare of the American peo- 
ple first. We see our duty to ourselves as well as to 
others. We believe in trade expansion. By every 
legitimate means within the province of government 
and constitution we mean to sitmulate the expansion 
of our trade and open new markets." 

This is the commercial argument. It is based 
upon the theory that war can be rightly waged for 



IMPERIALISM 331 

pecuniary advantage, and that it is profitable to pur- 
chase trade by force and violence. Franklin denied 
both of these propositions. When Lord Howe asserted 
that the acts of Parliament which brought on the Revo- 
lution were necessary to prevent American trade from 
passing into foreign channels, Franklin replied : 

"To me it seems that neither the obtaining nor re- 
taining of any trade, howsoever valuable, is an object 
for which men may justly spill each other's blood; that 
the true and sure means of extending and securing 
commerce are the goodness and cheapness of commod- 
ities, and that the profits of no trade can ever be equal 
to the expense of compelling it and holding it by fleets 
and armies. I consider this war against us, therefore, 
as both unjust and unwise." 

I place the philosophy of Franklin against the 
sordid doctrine of those who would put a price upon 
the head of an American soldier and justify a war of 
conquest upon the ground that it will pay. The demo- 
cratic party is in favor of the expansion of trade. It 
would extend our trade by every legitimate and peace- 
ful means; but it is not willing to make merchandise 
of human blood. 

But a war of conquest is as unwise as it is un- 
righteous. A harbor and coaling station in the Phil- 
ippines would answer every trade and military neces- 
sity and such a concession could have been secured at 
any time without difficulty. 

It is not necessary to own people in order to trade 
with them. We carry on trade today with every part 
of the world, and our commerce has expanded more 
rapidly than the commerce of any European empire. 



332 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

We do not own Japan or China, but we trade with 
their people. iWe have not absorbed the republics of 
Central and South America, but we trade with them. 
It has not been necessary to have any political con- 
nection with Canada or the nations of Europe in <Order 
to trade with them. Trade cannot be permanently 
profitable unless it is voluntary. 

When trade is secured by force, the cost of secur- 
ing it and retaining it must be taken out of the profits, 
and the profits are never large enough to cover the ex- 
pense. Such a system wouM never be defended but 
for the fact that the expense is borne by all the people, 
while the profits are enjoyed by a few. 

Imperialism would be profitable to the army con- 
tractors ; it would be profitable to the ship owners, who 
would carry live soldiers to the Philippines and bring 
dead soldiers back ; it would be profitable to those who 
would seize upon the franchises, and it would be 
profitable to the officials whose salaries would be fixed 
here and paid over there; but to the farmer, to the 
laboring man and to the vast majority of those en- 
gaged in other occupations it would bring expenditure 
without return and risk without reward. 

Farmers and laboring men have, as a rule, small 
incomes and under systems which place the tax upon 
consumption pay much more than their fair share of 
the expenses of government. Thus the very people 
who receive least benefit from imperialism will be in- 
jured most by the military burdens which accompany 
it. 

In addition to the evils which he and the farmer 
share in common, the laboring man will be the first to 



IMPERIALISM 333 

suffer if oriental subjects c eek work in the United 
States ; the first to suffer if American capital leaves 
our shores to employ orieni.?.l labor in the Philippines 
to supply the trade of China and Japan; the first to 
suffer from the violence which the military spirit 
arouses and the first to suffer when the methods of 
imperialism are applied to our own government. 

It is not strange, therefore, that the labor organ- 
izations have been quick to note the approach of these 
dangers and prompt to protest against both militarism 
and imperialism. 

The pecuniary argument, though more effective 
with certain classes, is not likely to be used so often or 
presented with so much enthusiasm as the religious 
argument. If what has been termed the "gun-powder 
gospel" were urged against the Filipinos only it would 
be a sufficient answer to say that a majority of the 
Filipinos are now members of one branch of the 
Christian church ; but the principle involved is one of 
much wider application and challenges serious consid- 
eration. 

The religious argument varies in positiveness from 
a passive belief that Providence delivered the Filipinos 
into our hands for their good and our glory, to the 
exultation of the minister who said that we ought to 
"thrash the natives (Filipinos) until they understand 
who we are," and that "every bullet sent, every cannon 
shot and every flag waved means righteousness." 

We cannot approve of this doctrine in one place 
unless we are willing to apply it everywhere. If there 
is poison in the blood of the hand it will ultimately 



334 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

reach the heart. It is equally true that forcible Christ- 
ianity, if planted under the American flag in the far- 
away Orient, will sooner or later be transplated upon 
American soil. 

If true Christianity consists in carrying out in our 
daily lives the teachings of Christ, who will say that 
we are commanded to civilize with dynamite and 
proselyte with the sword? He who would declare the 
divine will must prove his authority either by Holy 
Writ or by evidence of special dispensation. 

Imperialism finds no warrant in the Bible. The 
command "Go ye into all the world and preach the 
gospel to every creature" has no Gatling gun attach- 
ment. When' Jesus visited a village of Samaria and 
the people refused to receive him, some of the dis- 
ciples suggested that fire should be called down from 
Heaven to avenge the insult; but the Master rebuked 
them and said : "Ye know not what manner of spirit 
ye are of; for the Son of Man is not come to destroy 
men's lives, but to save them." Suppose he had said 
"We will thrash them until they understand who we 
are," how different would have been the history of 
Christianity! Compare, if you will, the swaggering, 
bullying, brutal doctrine of imperialism with the 
golden rule and the commandment "Thou shalt love 
thy neighbor as thyself." 

Love, not force, was the weapon of the Nazarene ; 
sacrifice for others, not the exploitation of them, was 
His method of reaching the human heart. A mission- 
ary recently told me that the stars and stripes once 
saved his life because his assailant recognized our flag 
as a flag that had no blood upon it. 



IMPERIALISM 335 

Let is be known that our missionaries are seeking 
souls instead of sovereignty ; let it be known that in- 
stead of being the advance guard of conquering armies, 
they are going forth to help and uplift, having their 
loins girt about with truth and their feet shod with the 
preparation of the gospel of peace, wearing the breast- 
plate of righteousness and carrying the sword of the 
spirit; let it be known that they are citizens of a na- 
tion which respects the rights of the citizens of other 
nations as carefully as it protects the rights of its own 
citizens, and the welcome given to our missionaries 
will be more cordial than the welcome extended to the 
missionaries of any other nation. 

The argument made by some that it was unfortu- 
nate for the nation that it had anything to do with the 
Philippine islands, but that the naval victory at Ma- 
nila made the permanent acquisition of those islands 
necessary, is also unsound. We won a naval victory 
at Santiago, but that did not compel us to hold Cuba. 

The shedding of American blood in the Philippine 
islands does not make it imperative that we should 
retain possession forever; American blood was shed at 
San Juan Hill and El Caney, and yet the president has 
promised the Cubans independence. The fact that the 
American flag floats over Manila does not compel us 
to exercise perpetual sovereignty over the islands ; the 
American flag waves over Havana today, but the 
president has promised to haul it down when the flag 
of the Cuban republic is ready to rise in its place. 
Better a thousand times that our flag in the Orient 
give way to a flag representing the idea of self-govern- 



336 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

ment than that flag of this republic should become 
the flag of an empire. 

There is an easy, honest, honorable solution of the 
Philippine question. It is set forth in the democratic 
platform and it is submitted with confidence to the 
American people. This plan I unreservedly indorse. 
If elected, I will convene congress in extraordinary 
session as soon as inaugurated and recommned an im- 
mediate declaration of the nation's purpose, first, to 
establish a stable form of government in the Philippine 
islands, just as we are now establishing a stable form 
of government in Cuba; second, to give independence 
to the Cubans ; third, to protect the Filipinos from out- 
side interference while they work out their destiny, 
just as we have protected the republics of Central and 
South America, and are, by the Monroe doctrine, 
pledged to protect Cuba. 

A European protectorate often results in the 
plundering of the ward by tbe guardian. An American 
protectorate gives to the nation protected the advant- 
age of our strength, without making it the victim of 
our greed. For three-quarters of a century the Mon- 
roe doctrine has been a shield to neighboring republics 
and yet it has imposed no pecuniary burden upon us. 
After the Filipinos had aided us in the war against 
Spain, we could not honorably turn them over to their 
former masters; we could not leave them to be the 
victims of the ambitious designs of European nations, 
and since we do not desire to make them a part of us 
or to hold them as subjects, we propose the only alter- 
native, namely, to give them independence and guard 
them against molestation from without. 



IMPERIALISM 337 

When our opponents are unable to defend their 
position by argument they fall back upon the assertion 
that it is destiny, and insist that we must submit to it, 
no matter how much it violates our moral precepts 
and our principles of government. This is a compla- 
cent philosophy. It obliterates the distinction between 
right and wrong and makes individuals and nations 
the helpless victims of circumstance. 

Destiny is the subterfuge of the invertebrate, who, 
lacking the courage to oppose error, seeks some plaus- 
ible excuse for supporting it. Washington said that 
the destiny of the republican form of government was 
deeply, if not finally, staked on the experiment en- 
trusted to the American people. How different Wash- 
ington's definition of destiny from the republican 
definition ! 

The Republicans say that this nation is in the 
hands of destiny; Washington believed that not only 
the destiny of our own nation but the destiny of the 
republican form of government throughout the world 
was intrusted to American hands. Immeasurable re- 
sponsibility! The destiny of this Republic is in the 
hands of its own people, and upon the success of the 
experiment here rests the hope of humanity. No ex- 
terior force can disturb this Republic, and no foreign 
influence should be permitted to change its course. 
What the future has in store for this nation no one 
has authority to declare, but each individual has his 
own idea of the nation's mission, and he owes it to his 
country as well as to himself to contribute as best he 
may to the fulfillment of that mission. 



338 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: 
I can never fully discharge the debt of gratitude 
which I owe to my countrymen for the honors which 
they have so generously bestowed upon me ; but, sirs, 
whether it be my lot to occupy the high office for 
which the convention has named me, or to 
spend the remainder of my days in private life, it shall 
be my constant ambition and my controlling purpose 
to aid in realizing the high ideals of those whose wis- 
dom and courage and sacrifices brought this Republic 
into existence. 

I can conceive of a national destiny surpassing 
the glories of the present and the past — a destiny 
which meets the responsibility of today and measures 
up to the possibilities of the future. Behold a 
republic, resting securely upon the foundation stones 
quarried by revolutionary patriots from the mountain 
of eternal truth — a republic applying in practice and 
proclaiming to the world the self-evident propositions 
that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed 
with inalienable rights; that governments are insti- 
tuted among men to secure these rights, and that gov- 
ernments derive their just powers from the consent 
of the governed. Behold a republic in which civil and 
religion liberty stimulate all to earnest endeav- 
or and in which the law restrains every hand 
uplifted for a neighbor's injury — a republic in 
which every citizen is a sovereign, but in which 
no one cares to wear a crown. Behold a re- 
public standing erect while empires all around are 
bowed beneath the weight of their own armaments — 



IMPERIALISM 339 

a republic whose flag is loved while other flags are 
only feared. Behold a republic increasing in popula- 
tion, in wealth, in strength and in influence, solving 
the problems of civilization and hastening the coming 
of an universal brotherhood — a republic which shakes 
thrones and dissolves aristocracies by its silent ex- 
ample and gives light and inspiration to those who 
sit in darkness. Behold a republic gradually but surely 
becoming the supreme moral factor in the world's 
progress and the accepted arbiter of the world's dis- 
putes — a republic whose history, like the path of the 
just, "is as the shining light that shineth more and 
more unto the perfect day." 



"I Have Kept the 
Faith" 



At the Democratic National Convention, St. Louis, Mr. Bryan in 

Seconding the Nomination of Senator F. M. Cockrell. 

Spoke as Follows. 






ST. LOUIS CONVENTION SPEECH. 

At the democratic national convention at St. 
Louis Mr. Bryan, in seconding the nomination of Sen- 
ator F. M. Cockrell, spoke as follows: 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Conven- 
tion: Two nights without sleep and a cold make it 
difficult for me to make myself heard. I trust that my 
voice will improve in a moment, but as I desire to 
speak to the delegates rather than to the galleries, I 
hope that they at least will be able to hear. 

Eight years ago a democratic national conven- 
tion placed in my hand the standard of the party 
and commissioned me as its candidate. Four years 
later that commission was renewed. I come tonight 
to this democratic national convention to return the 
commission. You may dispute whether I have fought 
a good fight, you may dispute whether I have finished 
my course, but you cannot deny that I have kept the 
faith. 

As your candidate I did all that I could to bring 
success to the party; as a private citizen I feel more 
interested in a democratic success today than I ever 
did when I was a candidate. 

The reasons that made the election of a democrat 
desirable were stronger in 1900 than in 1896, and the 
reasons that make the election of a democrat desirable 
are stronger now than they were in 1900. 

343 



344 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

The gentleman who presented New York's candi- 
date dwelt upon the dangers of militarism, and he did 
not overstate those dangers. Let me quote the most 
remarkable passage ever found in a speech nominating 
a candidate for the presidency. 

Governor Black, of New York, in presenting the 
name of Theodore Roosevelt to the republican con- 
vention of this year used these words : 

"The fate of nations is still decided by their wars. 
You may talk of orderly tribunals and learned referees ; 
you may sing in your schools the gentle praises of 
the quiet life; you make strike from your books the 
last note of every martial anthem, and yet out in the 
smoke and thunder will always be the tramp of 
horses and the silent, rigid, upturned face. Men may 
prophesy and women pray, but peace will come here 
to abide forever on this earth only when the dreams 
of childhood are the accepted charts to guide the des- 
tinies of men. 

"Events are numberless and mighty, and no man 
can tell which wire runs around the world. The na- 
tion basking today in the quiet of contentment and re- 
pose may still be on the deadly circuit and tomorrow 
writhing in the toils of war. This is the time when 
great figures must be kept in front. If the pressure is 
great the material to resist it must be granite and 
iron." 

This is a eulogy of war. This is a declaration 
that the hoped for, prayed for, era of perpetual peace 
will never come. This is an exalting of the doctrine 
of brute force ; it darkens the hopes of the race. 



I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH 345 

This republican president, a candidate for re-elec- 
tion, is presented as the embodiment of the warlike 
spirit as "the granite and iron" that represents modern 
militarism. 

Do you, men of the east, desire to defeat the 
military idea? Friends of the south, are you anxious 
to defeat the military idea? Let me assure you that 
not one of you north, east, or south, fears more than I 
do the triumph of that idea. If this is the doctrine 
that our nation is to stand for, it is retrogression, not 
progress. It is a lowering of the ideals of the na- 
tion. It is a turning backward to the age of violence. 
More than that, it is nothing less than a challenge to 
the Christian civilization of the world. 

Some twenty-six hundred years ago a prophet 
foretold the coming of One who was to be called the 
Prince of Peace. Nearly two thousand years ago He 
came upon the earth, and the song that was sung 
at His birth was "Peace on earth, good will toward 
men." For almost twenty centuries this doctrine of 
peace has been growing; it has been taking hold upon 
the hearts of men. For this doctrine of peace, millions 
have gladly given their lives ; for this doctrine of peace, 
thousands have crossed oceans and labored in distant 
lands, aye, even among savage tribes. This doctrine 
of peace, the foundation of Christian civilization, has 
been the growing hope and inspiration of the world. 
And now, an ex-governor of the largest state in the 
Union presents for the office of president of the. great- 
est republic of all history, a man who is described as 
"granite and iron," as one who represents, not the doc- 
trine of peace and arbitration, but the doctrine that the 



346 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

destinies of nations must still be settled by their wars. 

Will you democrats of New York present a graver 
indictment against President Roosevelt than that? 
Can you of the south present a more serious accusa- 
tion? I do not ask concerning the character of the 
president. He may have every virtue ; his life may be 
exemplary in every way; but if he shares the views 
of the man who placed him in nomination, if he be- 
lieves with his sponsor that wars must settle the des- 
tinies of nations; that peace is but an idle, childish 
dream; that women may pray for it; that men may 
prophesy about it; but that all this talk of "orderly 
tribunals and learned referees" is but an empty sound 
— if he believes these things he is a dangerous man for 
our country and for the world. I believe he ought to 
be defeated; I believe he can be defeated; and if the 
democratic party does what it ought to do, I believe 
he will be defeated. 

How can he be defeated? As your candidate I 
tried to defeat the republican party. I failed, you say. 
Yes, I failed. I received a million more votes than 
any democrat had ever received before, and yet I 
failed. Why did I fail ? Because some who had affiliated 
with the democratic party tin ought my election would 
be injurious to the country, and they left the party 
and helped to elect my opponent. That is why I failed. 
I have no words of criticism for them. I have always 
believed, I believe tonight, I shall ever believe, I hope, 
that a man's duty to his country is higher than his duty 
to his party. I hope that men of all parties will have 
the moral courage to leave their parties when they be- 
lieve that to stay with their parties would injure their 



I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH 34T 

country. The success of our government depends 
upon the independence and the moral courage of its 
citizens. 

But, my friends, if I, with six million and a half 
votes, failed to defeat the republican party, can those 
who defeated me succeed in defeating the republican 
party ? If under the leadership of those who were loyal 
in 1896 we failed, shall we succeed under the leader- 
ship of those who were not loyal in 1896 ? 

If we are going to have some other god besides 
this modern Mars, presented to us by Governor Black, 
what kind of a god is it to be? Must we choose be- 
tween a god of war and a god of gold. 

If there is anything that compares in hatefulness 
with militarism, it is plutocracy, and I insist that the 
democratic party ought not to be compelled to choose 
between militarism on the one side and plutocracy on 
the other. 

We have agreed upon a platform, after a session 
of sixteen hours. We entered the committee room at 
8 last evening and left it at 13 today. But I never em- 
ployed sixteen hours to better advantage in my life. 
I helped to bring the party together. The report was 
unanimous and we can go before the country with a 
united party. 

How did we reach an agreement? The platform 
is not all that we of the we.vr desired ; it is not all that 
our eastern democrats desired. We had to consent to 
the omission of some things that we wanted in the 
platform. They had to consent to the omission of 
some things that they wanted in the platorm. But by 



348 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

mutual concession we agreed upon a platform, and 
we will stand on that platform in this campaign. 

But, my friends, we need more than a platform 
We must nominate a ticket, and that is the work now 
before this convention. Had a majority of you come 
to this convention instructed for any man I not only 
would not ask you to disregard your instructions; I 
would not, if I could prevent it, permit you to disre- 
gard your instructions. 

I believe in the right of the people to rule. I be- 
lieve in the right of the people to instruct their dele- 
gates, and when a delegate 'S instructed, the instruc- 
tion is binding upon him. But no candidate comes 
with a majority instructed for him. That means that 
you, the delegates, are left to select a candidate 
upon your own responsibilitv — and a grave responsi- 
bility it is. Grave, indeed, is the responsibility resting 
upon the delegates assembled in this convention! 

I have not come to ask anything of this conven- 
tion. Nebraska asks nothing but to be permitted to 
fight the battles of democracy; that is all. Some of 
you call me a dictator. It is false. You know it is 
false. How have I tried to dictate? I have said that 
I thought certain things ought to be done. Have you 
not exercised the same privilege? Why have I not a 
right to suggest? Because I was your candidate, have 
I forfeited forever the right to make suggestions ? Sirs, 
if that condition was attached to a nomination for the 
presidency, no man worthy to be president would ever 
accept a nomination. For the right of a man to have 
an opinion and to express it is more important and 



I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH 349 

more sacred than the holding of any office however 
high. 

I expressed my opinion in regard to the plat- 
form ; I made my suggestions. Not all of them were 
adopted. I should like to have seen the Kansas City 
platform reaffirmed. I am not ashamed of that plat- 
form. I believe in it now, as I believed in it when I 
was running upon it as your candidate, but the 
delegates do not agree with me, and their will is su- 
preme in the making of the platform. When they veto 
my suggestions, I must submit ; there is no other 
court to which I can appeal. 

Neither have I attempted to dictate in regard to 
candidates. I have not asked the democrats of this na- 
tion to nominate any particular man. I have said and 
repeat that there are men in every state qualified for 
the presidency; I have also said and repeat that out 
of the six and a half millions who voted for me in 
both campaigns, we ought to be able to find at least 
one man fit to be president. I have made these sug- 
gestions, but they are only suggestions. I am here 
tonight as a delegate from Nebraska. I have not 
confidence enough in my own judgment to tell you that 
I can pick out a man and say, "This man must be nom- 
inated or we shall lose." I have, I think, a reasonable 
faith in my own opinions ; at least I would rather 
stand by my opinion if I believe it right than to accept 
the opinion of any one else if I believe that opinion to 
be wrong. 

But I am not asking for the nomination of any 
particular man. We have a platform upon which we 
all can stand. Now give us a ticket behind which all 



350 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

of us can stand. Go into any state you please for a 
candidate. I have not as much faith as some have in 
the value of locality. I have never believed much in 
nominating candidates from doubtful states on the 
theory that their personal popularity would elect them. 

I have so much confidence in democratic princi- 
ples that I think a democrat ought to vote for a good 
man from any other state rather than vote for a 
bad man from his own state. The state pride argu- 
ment is often given too much weight. I have found 
that when people come with a candidate and tell us, 
first, that we must carry a certain state, and, second, 
that their man is the only one who can carry that state, 
they do not put up a bond to deliver the votes. And 
then, anyhow, a state which is so uncertain that only 
one democrat in the nation can carry it, cannot be 
relied upon in a great crisis. 

Select a candidate. If it is the wish of this con- 
vention that the standard shall be placed in the hand 
of the gentleman presented by California, a man who, 
though he has money, pleads the cause of the poor; 
the man who is best beloved, I think I can safely say, 
among laboring men, of all the candidates proposed; 
the man who more than any other represents opposi- 
tion to the trusts — if you want to place the standard 
in his hand and make Mr. Hearst the candidate of this 
convention, Nebraska will be with you in the fight. 

If you think that the gentleman from Wisconsin 
who, though faithful in both campaigns, was not with 
us on the money question — if you think that Mr. Wall, 
who agrees with the east on the gold question and 
with the west on other questions, would draw the 



I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH 351 

party together, place the standard in his hand, and 
Nebraska will be with yon and contribute her part. 

If you prefer an eastern man and can find some 
one who will give both elements of the party some- 
thing to believe in, something to trust in, something 
to hope for, we are willing to join you in selecting him 
as the standard-bearer. 

Not all of the available men have been mentioned. 
There is in the state of Pennsylvania a man whom I 
desire to suggest, and I do it without consulting his 
delegation and without the consent of the man him- 
self. He is an eastern man, who voted with us in 
both campaigns, although against us on the money 
question, but, I believe, he is in sympathy with the 
people ; a man twice governor of a great state ; a man 
who only two years ago when again a candidate car- 
ried the state of Pennsylvania, outside of the two 
great cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburg. 

If you eastern democrats who insist that your 
objection to me is that I believe in free silver — if you 
are willing to take ex-Governor Pattison, a gold man, 
I am willing to let you have your way on that ques- 
tion, for I will trust his honesty on all questions. But 
I only mention these candidates by way of illustration. 

I desire to second the nomination of a man whose 
name has already been presented, and I second his 
nomination, not because I can assert to you that he is 
more available than any other person who might be 
named, but because I love the man and because on 
the platform we have adopted there is no good reason 
why any democrat in the east should vote against him. 



352 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

I second the nomination of Senator Cockrell of Mis- 
souri. 

He is the nestor of the senate ; he is experienced in 
public affairs. He is known ; he has a record, and can 
be measured by it. I would be willing to write my in- 
dorsement on his back and guarantee everything he 

' It is said that he comes from the south. What if 
he does? I do not share the feeling that some have 
that the democratic party cannot take a candidate from 
the south. It is said he was in the confederate army. 
What if he was? I do not share the belief of those 
who say that we cannot afford to nominate an ex-con- 
federate. That war, that cruel war, occurred forty 
years ago. Its issues are settled; its wounds are 
healed, and the participants are friends. We have an- 
other war on now, and those who know what the war 
between the democracy and plutocracy means, will 
not ask where the candidate stood forty years ago; 
they will ask where he stands today — on which side he 
is fighting in the present conflict. 
/ The great issue in this country today is "democ- 
racy versus plutocracy." I have been accused of having 
but one idea — silver. A few years ago it was said that 
I had only one, but then it was tariff reform. But there 
is an issue greater than the silver issue, the tariff issue 
or the trust issue. It is thj issue between democracy 
and plutocracy — whether this is to be a government of 
the people, administered by officers chosen by the peo- 
ple, and administered in behalf of the people, or a gov- 
ernment by the moneyed element of the country in the 
interest of predatory wealth. This issue is growing. 



I HAVE KEPT THE FAITH 353 

I ask you to help us to meet this issue. You tell 
me that the republican candidate stands for militar- 
ism. Yes, but he also stands for plutocracy. You tell 
me that he delights in war. Yes, but there is another 
objection to him, and that is that he does not enforce 
the law against a big criminal as he does against a lit- 
tle criminal. The laws are being violated today, and 
those laws must be enforced. The government must be 
administered according to the maxim : "Equal rights 
to all and special privileges to none." 

We have seen our elections debauched. It was 
stated the other day that into the little state of Dela- 
ware, two hundred and fift>-six thousand dollars were 
sent at one time just before the election of 1896. Some 
say that our party must have a great campaign fund 
and bid against the republicans. Let me warn you 
that if the democratic part}' is to save this nation, it 
must save it, not by purchase, but by principle. 
That is the only way to save it. Every time we 
resort to purchase, we encourage the spirit of bar- 
ter. Under such a system the price will constantly in- 
crease, and the elections will go to the highest bidder. 
If the democratic party is to save this country, it must 
appeal to the conscience of the country. It must point 
out impending dangers; and if the party will 
nominate a man, I care not from what part of the 
country he comes, who is not the candidate of a fac- 
tion, who is not the candidate of an element, but the 
candidate of the party, the party will stand by him and 
will drive the republican party from power. 

You could, I believe, take a man from any south- 
ern state — a man who would appeal to all democrats 
who love democratic principles, and to those repub- 



354 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

licans who begin to fear for their nation's welfare, and 
he would poll a million more votes than the candidate 
of any faction whose selection would be regarded as a 
I triumph of a part of the party over the rest of the 
party. 

I simply submit these suggestions for your con- 
sideration. I am here to discharge a duty that I owe 
to the party. I knew before coming to this con- 
vention that a majority of the delegates would not 
agree with me in regard to the financial plank. I knew 
that there would be among the delegates many who 
ted against me when I sorely needed their help. 
I am not objecting to the majority against me, nor to 
the presence of those who left us in 1896 and have 
since returned; I am here, not because I enjoy being 
in the minority, but because I owe a duty to the more 
than six million brave and loyal men who sacrificed 
for the ticket in recent campaigns. I came to help to 
get them as good a platform as I could ; I have helped 
to get them a good platform. I came to help to get as 
good a candidate as possible, and I hope that he will 
be one who can draw the factions together — one who 
will give to us who believe in positive, aggressive, 
democratic reform, something to hope for, some- 
thing to fight for — one who will also give to those who 
have differed from us on the money question some- 
thing to hope for, something to fight for. And I close 
with an appeal from my heart to the hearts of those 
who hear me: Give us a pilot who will guide the 
democratic ship away from the Scylla of militarism 
without wrecking her upon the Charybdis of commer- 
cialism. 



British Rule in India 



Written for and copyrighted by the New York Journal, and repro- 
duced by courtesy of that newspaper. 



BRITISH RULE IN INDIA. 

In the discussion of a colonial policy for the United 
States frequent references will be made to England's 
government of India. The imperialists are already 
declaring that Great Britain's policy has resulted in 
profit to herself and benefit to her Asiatic subjects. 

The opponents of imperialism, on the other hand, 
find in India's experience a warning against a policy 
which places one nation under the control of another 
and distant nation. 

In 1600 the first East India company was organ- 
ized. Its charter was for fifteen years, but a new and 
perpetual charter was granted in 1609. Under the 
reign of Charles II. the company obtained another 
charter which continued former privileges and added 
authority "to make peace or war with any prince or 
people (in India) not being Christian." 

The affairs of the company were managed with 
an eye single to gain, and intervention in the quarrels 
of native princes resulted in the gradual extension of 
its influence. Money was the object, and the means 
employed would not always bear scrutiny. There was, 
however, no hypocritical mingling of an imaginary 
"philanthropy" with an actual "five per cent." 

In 1757 Lord Clive, by the battle of Plassey, made 
the company the dominant power in Indian politics.. 

365 



366 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

and under Clive and Hastings the income of the East 
India Company reached enormous proportions. 

The history of the century, beginning with the 
battle of Plassey and ending with the Sepoy mutiny in 
1857, was written under headlines like the following: 
"The First War with Hyder AH," "The Rohilla War," 
"The Second War with Hyder Ali," "The War with 
Tippoo Saib," "The War with the Mahrattas," "Sup- 
pression of the Pindaris," "The Last of the Peshwas," 
"The First Burmese War," "The First Afghan War," 
"The Conquest of Scinde," "The Sekh Wars," "The 
Conquest of Punjab," "The Annexation of Pegu," "The 
Annexation of Oudh," "The Outbreak of Meerut," 
"The Seizure of Delhi." "The Siege of Lucknow," etc. 

This brief review is not given because it is inter- 
esting, but to acquaint the reader with the imperialistic 
plan of solving the problem of civilization by the elim- 
ination of unruly factors. 

In 1858 Parliament, by an act entitled an act "for 
the better government of India," confessed that the 
management of Indian affairs could be improved and 
placed the control in the hands of a Secretary of State 
for India and a Council. 

In 1877 Queen Victoria assumed the title, Em- 
press of India. 

Even if it could be shown that England's sover- 
eignty over India had brought blessings to the Indian 
people and advantage to the inhabitants of Great Brit- 
ain, we could not afford to adopt the policy. A mon- 
archy can engage in work which a republic dare not 
undertake. A monarchy is constructed upon the 



BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 367 

theory that authority descends from the king and that 
privileges are granted by the crown to the subjects. 
Of course the ruling power recognizes that it owes a 
duty to the people, but while the obligation is binding 
upon the conscience of the sovereign it cannot be en- 
forced by the subject. 

Webster presented this idea with great force in 
his speech on the Greek revolution. After setting 
forth the agreement between the Allied Powers, he 
said : "The first of these principles is, that all popular 
or constitutional rights are holden not otherwise than 
as grants from the crown. Society, upon this prin- 
ciple, has no rights of its own ; it takes good govern- 
ment, when it gets it, as a boon and a concession, but 
can demand nothing. It is to live in that favor which 
emanates from royal authority and if it have the mis- 
fortune to lose that favor, there is nothing to protect 
it against any degree of injustice and oppression. It 
can rightfully make no endeavor for a change, by itself ; 
its whole privilege is to receive the favors that may 
be dispensed by the sovereign power, and all its duty 
is described in the single word, submission. This is 
the plain result of the principal continental state pa- 
pers ; indeed, it is nearly the identical text of some of 
them." 

The English people have from time to time forced 
the crown to recognize certain rights, but the prin- 
ciple of monarchy still exists. The sovereign has a 
veto upon all legislation; the fact that this veto has 
not been used of late does not change the govern- 
mental theory, and, in India, the application of the 



368 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

theory has deprived the Indian people of participation 
in the control of their own affairs. 

A nation which denies the principle that govern- 
ments derive their just powers from the consent of the 
governed can give self-government to one colony and 
deny it to another; it can give it to colonies strong 
enough to exact it by force and deny it to weaker ones ; 
but a nation which recognizes the people as the only 
sovereigns, and regards those temporarily in authority 
merely as public servants, is not at liberty to apply 
the principle to one section of the country and refuse 
it to another. 

But, so far from supporting the contention of the 
imperialists, British rule in India really enforces every 
argument that can be made against a colonial system 
of government. In the first place, to authorize a com- 
mercial company "to make peace or war with any 
prince or people (not Christian)," according to its 
pleasure, was to place the pecuniary interests of a few 
stockholders above the rights of those with whom they 
had dealings. Clive and Hastings seem to have acted 
upon this authority. When the former was called to 
account he confessed that he had forged a treaty, and 
his conduct was such that Parliament was compelled 
to vote that he "had abused his powers and set an evil 
example to the servants of the public," but, as he had 
increased the power of England in India, his con- 
demnation was accompanied by the declaration that 
he had, "at the same time, rendered great and meri- 
torious services to his country." 

The prosecution of Hastings for wrongs inflicted 
upon the people of India occupies a conspicuous place 



BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 369 

among the political trials of history. The speeches 
made against him recall the orations of Cicero against 
Verres, who, by the way, was also charged with plund- 
ering a colony. 

Cicero said that Verres relied for his hope of 
escape upon his ability to corrupt the judges of his 
day, and it appears that the East India Company was 
also accused of polluting the stream of justice only a 
century ago. 

In his speech on the Nabob of Arcot's debts, 
Burke, said : "Let no man hereafter talk of the de- 
caying energies of nature. All the acts and monu- 
ments in the records of peculation ; the consolidated 
corruption of ages ; the pattern of exemplary plunder 
in the heroic times of Roman iniquity, never equaled 
the gigantic corruption of this single act. Never did 
Nero, in all his insolent prodigality of despotism, deal 
out to his praetorian guards a donation fit to be named 
with the largess showered down by the bounty of our 
chancellor of the exchequer on the faithful band of 
Indian sepoys." 

How little human nature changes from age to age ! 
How weak is the boasted strength of the arm of the 
law when the defendant possesses the influence pur- 
chased by great wealth, however obtained, and the 
accusation comes from a far-off victim of oppression ! 

Those who expect justice to be exercised by offi- 
cials far removed from the source of power — officials 
who do not receive their commissions from, and cannot 
be removed by, the people whom they govern — should 
read Sheridan's great speech portraying the effect of 
the Hastings policy upon the people of India. 



370 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

Below will be found an extract : 

"If, my lords, a stranger had at this time entered 
the province of Oude, ignorant of what had happened 
since the death of Sujah Dowlah, that prince who, 
with a savage heart, had still great lines of character, 
and who, with all his ferocity in war, had with a culti- 
vating hand preserved to his country the wealth which 
it derived from benignant skies, and a prolific soil; if 
observing the wide and general devastation of fields 
unclothed and brown ; of vegetation burnt up and ex- 
tinguished ; of villages depopulated and in ruin ; of 
temples unroofed and perishing; of reservoirs broken 
down and dry, this stranger would ask, 'What has 
thus laid waste this beautiful and opulent land; what 
monstrous madness has ravaged with widespread war ; 
what desolating foreign foe ; what civil discords ; what 
disputed succession; what religious zeal; what fabled 
monster has stalked abroad, and, with malice and 
mortal enmity to man, withered by the grasp of death 
every growth of nature and humanity, all means of 
delight, and each original, simple principle of bare 
existence ?' The answer would have been : Not one of 
these causes ! No wars have ravaged these lands and 
depopulated these villages! No desolating foreign 
foe, no domestic broils, no disputed succession, no 
religious superserviceable zeal, no poisonous monster, 
no affliction of Providence, which, while it scourges 
us, cut off the sources of resuscitation ! 

"No. This damp of death is the mere effusion of 
British amity! We sink under the pressure of their 
support! We writhe under their perfidious gripe! 



BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 371 

They have embraced us with their protecting arms, 
and lo ! these are the fruits of their alliance !" 

No clearer case was ever made against a prisoner 
at the bar, and yet after a seven years' trial before the 
House of Lords Hastings was acquitted, not because 
he was guiltless, but because England had acquired 
territory by his policy. 

Lord Macaulay, in describing the crimes perpe- 
trated at that time against a helpless people, gives 
expression to a truth which has lost none of its force 
with the lapse of years. He says : "And then was 
seen what we believe to be the most frightful of all 
spectacles, the strength of civilization without its 
mercy. To all other despotism there is a check, im- 
perfect indeed, and liable to gross abuse, but still suffi- 
cient to preserve society from the last extreme of 
misery. A time comes when the evils of submission 
are obviously greater than those of resistance, when 
fear itself begets a sort of courage, when a convulsive 
burst of popular rage and despair warns tyrants not 
to presume too far on the patience of mankind. But 
against misgovernment such as then afflicted Bengal, 
it is impossible to struggle. The superior intelligence 
and energy of the dominant class made their power 
irresistible. A war of Bengalees against Englishmen 
was like a war of sheep against wolves, of men against 
demons." 

"The strength of civilization without its mercy!" 

The American people are capable of governing 

themselves, but what reason have we to believe that 

they can wisely administer the affairs of distant races? 



372 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

It is difficult enough to curb corporate power in this 
country, where the people who suffer have in their 
own hands the means of redress ; how much more 
difficult it would be to protect the interests of the peo- 
ple where the people who do the governing do not 
feel the suffering and where the people who do the 
suffering must rely upon the mercy of alien rulers ! 

True, Macaulay argues that English morality, 
tardily but finally, followed English authority into the 
Orient, but, as a matter of fact, the bleeding of India 
has continued systematically during the present cen- 
tury. Polite and refined methods have been substi- 
tuted for the rude and harsh ones formerly employed, 
and the money received is distributed among a larger 
number, but the total sum annually drawn from India 
is greater now than it was when England's foremost 
orators and statesmen were demanding the impeach- 
ment of notorious malefactors. 

Sir J. Strachey, an Englishman, in a history re- 
cently published, is quoted as saying that "the confis- 
cation of the rights of the ryots (in Bengal) has 
reached vast proportions." He then shows that 
through the action of the English government the 
Zemindars, or middle men, have been able to enor- 
mously increase their income at the expense of the 
tillers of the soil, the increase being from four hun- 
dred thousand pounds in the last century to thirteen 
million pounds at the present time. 

On the 28th of December, 1897 — only a year ago 
— a meeting of the London Indian Society was held 
at Montague Mansions and strong resolutions adopted. 
Below will be found an extract from the resolutions : 



BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 373 

"That this conference of Indians, resident in the 
United Kingdom, is of opinion — 

"That of all the evils and 'terrible misery' that 
India has been suffering for a century and a half, and 
of which the latest developments are the most deplor- 
able, famine and plague, arising from ever-increasing 
poverty, the stupid and suicidal Frontier War and its 
savagery, of the wholesale destruction of villages, 
unworthy of any people, but far more so of English 
civiilzation ; the unwise and suicidal prosecutions for 
sedition ; the absurd and ignorant cry of the disloyalty 
of the educated Indians, and for the curtailment of the 
liberty of the Indian press ; the despotism — like that of 
the imprisonment of the Natus, and the general in- 
sufficiency and inefficiency of the administration — of 
all these and many other minor evils the main cause is 
the unrighteous and un-British system of government 
which produces an unceasing and ever-increasing 
bleeding of the country, and which is maintained by a 
political hypocrisy and continuous subterfuges un- 
worthy of the British honor and name, and entirely in 
opposition to the wishes of the British people, and 
utterly in violation of acts and resolutions of Parlia- 
ment, and of the most solemn and repeated pledges of 
the British nation and sovereign. 

"That unless the present unrighteous and un- 
British system of government is thoroughly reformed 
into a righteous and truly British system destruction 
to India and disaster to the British empire must be the 
inevitable result." 

Mr. Naoroji, an Indian residing in England, in 
supporting the resolution, pointed out the continuous 



374 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

drain of money from India and argued that the people 
were compelled "to make brick, not only without 
straw, but even without clay." He insisted that Eng- 
land's trade with India would be greater if she would 
allow the people of India a larger participation in the 
affairs of their own government, and protested against 
the policy of sending Englishmen to India to hold the 
offices and draw their support from taxes levied upon 
the inhabitants. He complained that British justice 
is one thing in England and quite another thing in 
India, and said : "There (In India) it is only the busi- 
ness of the people to pay taxes and to slave; and the 
business of the government to spend those taxes to 
their own benefit. Whenever any question arises be- 
tween Great Britain and India there is a demoralized 
mfnd. The principles of politics, of commerce, of 
equality which are applied to Great Britain are not 
applied to India. As if it were not inhabited by 
human beings!" 

Does any one doubt that if we annex the Philip- 
pines and govern them by agents sent from here, ques- 
tions between them and the people of the United 
States will be settled by the people of the United 
States and for the benefit of the people of the United 
States? If we make subjects of them against their 
will and for our own benefit are we likely to govern 
them with any more benevolence? 

The resolutions quoted mention efforts for the 
curtailment of the liberty of the press. Is that not a 
necessary result of governmental injustice? Are we 
likely to allow the Filipinos freedom of the press, if 



BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 375 

we enter upon a system that is i- (defensible according 
to our theory of government ? 

Mr. Hyndman, an English writer, in a pamphlet 
issued in 1897, calls attention to English indifference 
to India's wrongs, and, as an illustration of this indif- 
ference, cites the fact that during the preceding year 
the India budget affecting the welfare of nearly three 
hundred millions of people was brought before Par- 
liament on the last day of the session when only a few 
members were present. He asserts that "matters are 
far worse now than they were in the days of the old 
East India Company," and that "nothing short of a 
great famine, a terrible pestilence, or a revolt on a 
large scale, will induce the mass of Englishmen to 
devote any attention whatever to the affairs of India." 

To show how, in the government of India, the 
interests of English office-holders outweigh the in- 
terests of the natives, I give an extract from the 
pamphlet already referred to : 

"First, under the East India Company, and then, 
and far more completely, under the direct rule of the 
Crown of the English people, the natives have been 
shut out from all the principal positions of trust over 
five-sixths of Hindostan, and have been prevented 
from gaining any experience in the higher administra- 
tion, or in military affairs. 

"Wherever it was possible to put in an English- 
man to oust a native an Englishman has been put in, 
and has been paid from four times to twenty times as 
much for his services as would have sufficed for the 
salary of an equally capable Hindo or Mohammedan 
official. * * * At the present time, out of 39,000 



376 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

officials who draw a salary of more than 1,000 rupees 
a year, 28,000 are Englishmen and only 11,000 natives. 
Moreover, the 11,000 natives receive as salaries only 
three million pounds a year; the 28,000 Englishmen 
receive fifteen million pounds a year. Out of the 960 
important civil offices which really control the civil 
administration of India 900 are filled with English- 
men and only sixty with natives. Still worse, if pos- 
sible, the natives of India have no control whatsoever 
in any shape or way over their own taxation, or any 
voice at all in the expenditure of their own revenues. 
Their entire government — I speak, of course, of the 
250,000,000 under our direct control — is carried on and 
administered by foreigners, who not only do not settle 
in the country, but who live lives quite remote from 
those of the people, and return home at about forty- 
five or fifty years of age with large pensions. 

"As I have often said in public, India is, in fact, 
now governed by successive relays of English carpet- 
baggers, who have as little sympathy with the natives 
as they have any real knowledge of their habits and 
customs." 

The Statesman's Year Book of 1897, published by 
Macmillan & Co., London, contains some interesting 
statistics in regard to India. 

It seems that there are but two and a quarter mil- 
lions of Christians in India — less than one per cent-r- 
after so many years of English control. 

It appears, also, that in 1891 only a little more 
than three millions out of three hundred millions were 
under instruction; a little more than twelve millions 
were not under instruction, but able to read and write, 



BRITISH RULE IN INDIA 377 

while two hundred and forty-six millions were neither 
under instruction nor able to read or write. Twenty- 
five millions appear under the head "not returned." 

The European army in India amounts to seventy- 
four thousand and the native army to one hundred and 
forty-five thousand. In the army the European officers 
number five thousand and the native officers twenty- 
seven hundred. One-fourth of the national expendi- 
ture in India goes to the support of the army. Nearly 
one-third of India's annual revenue is expended in 
Great Britain. The salary of the governor-general is 
250,000 rupees per annum. 

The Year Book above mentioned is also respon- 
sible for the statement that the act of 1893, closing the 
Indian mints to the free coinage of silver, was enacted 
by the Governor-General and Council upon the same 
day that it was introduced. Mr. Leech, former direc- 
tor of the United States mint, in an article in the 
Forum, declared that the closing of the mints in India 
on that occasion was the most momentous event in the 
monetary history of the present century. It will be 
remembered that this act was made the excuse for an 
extra session of our Congress and for the uncondi- 
tional repeal of the Sherman law. 

One can obtain some idea of the evils of irrespon- 
sible alien government when he reflects that an Eng- 
lish Governor-General and an English Council changed 
the financial system of nearly three hundred millions 
of people by an act introduced and passed in the course 
of a single day. 

No matter what views one may hold upon the 
money question, he cannot defend such a system of 



378 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

government without abandoning every principle re- 
vered by the founders of the republic. Senator Wol- 
cott of Colorado, one of the president's commissioners, 
upon his return from Europe, made a speech in the 
senate in which he declared that the last Indian fam- 
ine was a money famine rather than a food famine. In 
that speech Mr. Wolcott also asserted that the closing 
of the India mints reduced by five hundred millions of 
dollars, the value of the silver accumulated in the 
hands of the people. If Mr. Wolcott's statement con- 
tains the smallest fraction of truth the injury done by 
the East India Company during its entire existence 
was less than the injury done by that one act of the 
Governor and his Council. If the famine was, in fact, 
a money famine, created by an act of the Governor and 
his Council, then indeed is English rule as cruel and 
merciless in India today as was the rule of the East 
India Company's agents a century ago. English rule 
in India is not bad because it is English, but because 
no race has yet appeared sufficiently strong in char- 
acter to resist the temptations which come with irre- 
sponsible power. 

We may well turn from the contemplation of an 
imperial policy and its necessary vices to the words of 
Jefferson in his first inaugural message: "Sometimes 
it is said that man cannot be trusted with the govern- 
ment of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the 
government of others? Or have we found angels in 
the form of kings to govern him ? Let history answer 
this question." — New York 'Journal, Jan. 22, 1899. 



Philo Sherman Bennett 



Delivered at Mr. Bennett's Funeral, August 19, 1903 



Philo Sherman Bennett. 

"At another time I shall take occasion to speak 
of the life of Philo Sherman Bennett and to draw 
some lessons from his career; today I must content 
myself with offering a word of comfort to those who 
knew him as husband, brother, relative or friend — and 
as a friend I need a share of this comfort for myself. 
It is sad enough to consign to the dust the body of 
one we love — how infinitely more sad if we were 
compelled to part with the spirit that animated this 
tenement of clay. But the best of man does not 
perish. We bury the brain that planned for others as 
well as for its master, the tongue that spoke words of 
love and encouragement, the hands that were ex- 
tended to those who needed help and the feet that ran 
where duty directed, but the spirit that dominated and 
controlled all rises triumphant over the grave. We lay 
away the implements with which he wrought, but the 
gentle, modest, patient, sympathetic, loyal, brave and 
manly man whom we knew is not dead, and cannot 
die. It would be unfair to count the loss of his de- 
parture without counting the gain of his existence. 
The gift of his life we have and of this the tomb can- 
not deprive us. Separation, sudden and distressing as 
it is, cannot take from the companion of his life the 
recollection of forty years of affection, tenderness and 
confidence nor from others the memory of helpful as- 
sociation with him. If the sunshine which a baby 



382 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

brings into a home, even if its sojourn is brief, cannot 
be dimmed by its death ; if a child growing to man- 
hood or womanhood brings to the parents a develop- 
ment of heart and head that outweighs any grief that 
its demise can cause, how much more does a long life 
full of kindly deeds leave us indebted to the Father 
who both gives and takes away. The night of death 
makes us remember with gratitude the light of the 
day that has gone while we look forward to the 
morning. 

"The impress made by the life is lasting. We 
think it wonderful that we can by means of the 
telephone or the telegraph talk to those who are many 
miles away, but the achievements of the heart are 
even more wonderful, for the heart that gives inspira- 
tion to another heart influences all the generations 
yet to come. What finite mind, then, can measure 
the influence of a life that touched so many lives as did 
our friend's ? 

"To the young, death is an appalling thing, but it 
ought not to be to those whose advancing years warn 
them of its certain approach. As we journey along 
life's road we must pause again and again to bid fare- 
well to some fellow traveler. In the course of na- 
ture the father and the mother die, then brothers 
and sisters follow, and finally the children and the 
children's children cross to the unknown world be- 
yond — one by one 'from love's shining circle the gems 
drop away' until the 'king of terrors' loses his power 
to affright us and the increasing company on the 
farther shore make us first willing and then anxious to 
join them. It is God's way. It is God's way. 



Wonders of the West 



Written for The Commoner 



THE WONDERS OF THE WEST. 

A summer trip to the Rocky Mountain region 
answers a three-fold purpose ; it gives rest and recrea- 
tion to those who are weary ; it repays the tourist who 
is in search of the rare, the beautiful and the sublime 
in nature, and it furnishes an inspiration and a moral 
stimulus that the fertile prairies, the growing cities 
and even the boundless ocean can not supply. 

A fourth reason for a mountain trip can be found 
in the altitude, if one needs the tonic furnished by the 
rarer air, for to those who suffer from any sort of pul- 
monary trouble the breezes of the mountains bear 
healing in their wings. During the past seven years I 
have spent three brief vacations in the Rockies and 
they have not only been invigorating but they have 
furnished to my family and to myself an opportunity 
to view the wonders of the west. 

Yellowstone Park. 

In 1897 we made a tour of Yellowstone park. 
Leaving the Union Pacific in eastern Idaho at a little 
station near Beaver Canon, we spent seventeen days 
in making the trip to and through the government 
reservation known as Yellowstone park. About half 
way between the railroad and the park we found the 
hospitable home of Hon. A. S. Trude, the eminent 
Chicago lawyer, and made a brief stop there. His 
commodious cottage is on the bank of Snake river 

385 



386 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

which at that point is a beautiful, transparent stream, 
about waist deep. The fishing is excellent there, and 
the same may be said of the hunting. In one day de- 
voted to sport we secured a number of wild ducks, and 
about thirty sage chickens and a good string of trout. 
I say we, but my shooting was really not very satis- 
factory as Mr. Trude's father, a man past eighty and 
bereft of one eye, killed about two-thirds of the 
chickens. 

We made our next stop at Dwelle's ranch, which 
is located near the edge of the park. Here, too, fish 
and game were abundant. In the park itself no hunt- 
ing is allowed but fishing is permitted, and I never 
saw trout caught with such ease and rapidity as in the 
Yellowstone river, just as it leaves the lake. 

Yellowstone lake is itself an object of interest, 
being one of the largest of the mountain lakes. A 
small steamboat takes the tourist a picturesque trip 
around its shores. It is in the edge of this lake that 
the famous hot spring is located. The spring is en- 
cased in a wall that seems to have been formed by a 
deposit of lime and is surrounded by the water of the 
lake. Here, the guide books tell us, one can catch a 
trout and without moving from the spot cook the fish 
in the water of this spring. 

Not far from the edge of the lake there is a mud 
geyser, as it is commonly called. It is a funnel shaped 
hole and contains several feet of thin mud. Every few 
moments a puff" of gas coming up from below spatters 
the mud against the sides of the hole and by the time 
the mud has fallen back into the pit, it is again blown 
out. When I visited the mud geyser the campaign of 



WONDERS OF THE WEST 587 

1896 was fresh in my mind, and the working plan of 
the mud geyser recalled the editorial policy of some of 
the opposition papers, especially the New York Trib- 
une. 

The hot water geysers of the Yellowstone are to 
many the chief attraction. Of these Old Faithful is 
the most constant though not the largest. One can 
not visit this section of the park, look upon these in- 
termittent pillars of boiling water and thread his way 
among the smoking hot pools, without feeling that in 
spite of the altitude he is close to the infernal regions, 
and this impression is strengthened by the names that 
have been given to various localities and objects of 
interest. One place is called Hell's Half Acre, and it 
has earned the appellation for it not only contains a 
number of hot pools and geysers, but it is encrusted 
with a sediment from the hot springs that gives forth 
a hollow sound and makes one feel that there is but a 
thin crust between him and raging fires beneath. A 
cave in this vicinity is called the Devil's Kitchen, while 
a small spring which flows at intervals is called the 
Devil's Inkstand. The Devil is also the recognized 
owner of a frying pan, some paint pots and other 
articles of ornament and utility. Some of the pools of 
hot water are strikingly beautiful, reflecting from their 
depths all the colors of the rainbow, the principal of 
these being called the Morning Glory. In some in- 
stances the springs issuing from the hillside have 
formed terraces covering acres of ground. These ter- 
races are richly colored by the various mineral de- 
posits. 



388 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

The canyon of the Yellowstone is one of the prin- 
cipal features of the park. The deep gorge with its 
brilliantly colored, sloping walls, the falls with dash- 
ing spray, the stream which in the distance looks like 
a tiny thread of green or white according to the rap- 
idity of the current, and the fringe of verdure at the 
top of the canyon — all these combine to impress the 
view upon one's memory. 

There are hotels at the principal points of interest, 
so that the tourist can find lodging and food at con- 
venient hours. The animals in the park, protected 
from danger, have become very tame, so that it is not 
unusual to see both deer and bear. From a window of 
one of the hotels we saw a large black bear and two 
cubs eating the scraps from the table. They were 
frightened away by some horses and after waiting 
awhile for the danger to pass, the old bear arose upon 
her hind feet to take a survey of the field. The cubs 
followed her example and the three presented a pic- 
ture that made me wish for a kodak. While we en- 
tered the park from the west in a private conveyance, 
the most convenient entrance is from the north. The 
Northern Pacific has a branch from Livingston to 
Cinnabar, from which point coaches make a tour of 
the park at rates fixed by the government. 

Yosemite. 

In 1899 we made our summer vacation include a 
trip to Yosemite valley. While it is difficult to com- 
pare two things as dissimilar as Yellowstone park and 
Yosemite, it may be said of them that the former con- 



WONDERS OF THE WEST 389 

tains moreplaces of interest while the latter is built 
upon a more stupendous scale. 

The Yosemite is in central California and is 
reached by the Santa Fe and the Southern Pacific. 
Leaving the main lines of these roads at Merced, the 
traveler takes a branch road to Raymond and from 
that point reaches the valley by stage. The ride is 
an interesting one, and one is constantly wondering at 
the magnitude of the trees. Enormous sugar pines, 
some of them eight or ten feet in diameter, line the 
way and prepare one for the giant red woods of the 
Mariposa group, which are but a short distance from 
the Yosemite road. These are the big trees of Cali- 
fornia, but they are so symmetrical that one can hardly 
believe his eyes or credit the measurements which he 
himself takes. The largest of these trees is more than 
thirty feet in diameter — nearly one hundred feet in 
circumference. Some idea of the size of the trees can 
be formed when one knows that a roadway has been 
cut through the base of one of the trees and that when 
a four horse, three-seated, coach is driven through, the 
coach and the wheel horses are concealed within the 
tree. 

The road to the valley leads through a mining 
camp which bears the euphonious title of Grub Gulch. 
When we arrived here we found a rope stretched 
across the road and the citizens drawn up in line. 
They bore a banner which certified to the fact that I 
had carried the precinct by a large majority three 
years before and they insisted that they were entitled 
to a speech from the candidate, as a return for their 
partiality. At Wawona, the half-way house, we 



390 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

stopped for the night. The hotel nestles in a little 
valley by the side of a fertile meadow and the pine- 
clad hills which hem it in make the spot so picturesque 
that we were sorry to resume our journey. About 
noon on the second day we reached the point where 
the trail leading to the rim of the canyon leaves the 
wagon road. While the stage carried our baggage to 
the valley, we mounted the mules and horses and fol- 
lowed the path to Glacier Point, where the night was 
spent. From this point the view of the valley is en- 
chanting. Looking down the walls of the canyon to 
the bottom of the valley, more than three thousand 
feet below, one sees a picture so beautiful that it 
hardly seems real. Five streams pour their waters, 
or rather their spray, into the valley, for the distance 
is so great that the water does not fall en masse. The 
Bridal Veil Falls greet one as he enters the valley and 
the name is not inappropriate, for the wind swaying 
the falling spray gives it the appearance of a flutter- 
ing veil. The falls of the Yosemite, the stream which 
has impressed its name upon the valley, were a dis- 
appointment, the water at that time being exceedingly 
low. These falls are at their best during the early 
summer months, when the snow is melting. 

The most striking feature of the valley is the 
famous promontory known as El Capitan. It is a 
massive piece of granite a little more than half a mile 
high and considerably more than half a mile in width, 
without a crack or seam. It is the most stupendous 
piece of masonry that I have seen, and one stands 
before it in awe and reverence. 

Visitors to the Yosemite are sometimes enter- 
tained by the explosion of dynamite cartridges within 



WONDERS OF THE WEST 391 

the walls of the canyon, the echo from the various 
parts reminding one of reverberating thunder. Glacier 
Point is the best place for the production of this effect. 
The beauty of the valley is much enhanced by the 
verdure, everything excepting the bare rocks respond- 
ing to the moisture and the warmth. 

In returning from Yosemite we stopped a day at 
Lake Tahoe, which lies up in the mountains on the 
borderline between Nevada and California, fifteen 
miles by rail from Truckee, a station on the Southern 
Pacific between Ogden and San Francisco. The lake 
is called the Pearl of the Sierras and has a depth of 
two thousand feet and an area of two hundred and 
fifty square miles. Its elevation above the sea is some- 
thing over six thousand feet and, owing to the varying 
depths, the water takes on many shades of blue and 
green. 

In the northern portion of the Rockies there are 
innumerable fishing and hunting resorts, such as the 
Jackson Hole country, just south of the Yellowstone, 
the Big Horn Basin near Sheridan, Wyoming, the 
North Platte headwaters in the neighborhood of Sara- 
toga, just south of Rawlins, Wyoming, the Black Hill 
streams near Custer and Spearfish, not to speak of the 
Gunnison country and many other places in Colorado. 

The Petrified Forest. 

This year we took most of our summer vacation 
in New Mexico and Arizona, the principal places vis- 
ited being the Petrified Forest and the Grand Canyon. 

The Petrified Forests are in eastern Arizona and 



392 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

near the line of the Santa Fe. The two smaller for- 
ests are near Adamana ; the largest of the three is near 
Holbrook. We visited the Holbrook forest, sixteen 
miles southeast of that town, and found it a place of 
surpassing interest. No one who has formed an opin- 
ion of the petrified wood from the few pieces seen at 
the various expositions can realize the immensity of 
the force, the size of the logs or the variety of color- 
ing. In some places it looks like a logging camp and 
many of the trees seem to have been sawed into sec- 
tions, the lengths proportioned somewhat to the diam- 
eter of the log. Thousands of pieces can be found 
showing the entire circumference of the tree, and vary- 
ing in diameter from eight inches to two feet and in 
length from a foot to three feet — pieces convenient for 
shipping. Every institution of learning in the land 
ought to supply itself with one of these specimens for 
the benefit of the students. If the government, which 
has made a reservation of the forest, does not now 
permit such use of the specimens, it ought to do so, for 
these fragments of logs record a wondrous story of 
the earth's convulsions before man was born. Geolo- 
gists tell us that this portion of the earth's surface was 
once submerged, probably by water from the Gulf of 
California, and that after the work of petrifaction was 
completed another convulsion converted this section 
into the arid plateau which we find there today. It 'is 
evident that these trees were at one time covered with 
a deposit of soil which is now being gradually washed 
away exposing the logs to view. As the washing con- 
tinues new trees are disentombed and new acres added 
to the thousand or more now included in the largest 
forest. 



WONDERS OF THE WEST 393 

One of the petrified trees is nearly nine feet in 
diameter and some show a length of two or three hun- 
dred feet. One tree, or what seems to be one tree, 
must have been more than four hundred feet high, but 
as the center of the tree is still covered by a deposit of 
soil the identity of the two sections is not clearly 
established. A section of one tree shows five branches 
and there is a stump which shows where the roots 
have been broken off. In what appears to have been a 
hollow in a stump there is something which looks like 
driftwood, petrified with the tree. 

At the Chicago exposition in 1893 a visitor, after 
inspecting some of the specimens of petrified wood, 
innocently asked whether they were petrified by hand. 
The question brought a smile to the face of the man in 
charge of the exhibit and I smiled, too, when he re- 
lated the incident to me, but I recently heard Captain 
Jack Crawford, the poet scout, recite some verses 
which make the inquiry seem less ludicrous. Captain 
Crawford, after a visit to the cities of the east, wrote 
a poem contrasting the rugged natural beauty of the 
western mountains with the handiwork of man and 
concluded each verse with the following: 

"Like it? No. I love to wander 
'Mid the vales an' mountains green, 
In the borderland out yonder, 
Where the hand o' God is seen." 

I have thought often during the last few weeks of 
his description of the mountain country. "Where the 
hand o' God is seen — !" In the canyon of the Yellow- 
stone, in the valley of the Yosemite, in the brilliantly 



394 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

colored logs of the Petrified Forest and more dis- 
tinctly still in the Grand Canyon of the Colorado in 
northern Arizona "the hand o' God is seen." 

Of all the wonders of the west, the Grand Canyon, 
the mightiest and most impressive^is now the most 
accessible of them all to tourists. The Santa Fe rail- 
road has a branch which runs from Williams to the 
very edge of the canyon. Here the Bright Angel hotel 
and others of less capacity supply the wants of the 
traveler and furnish outfits for a visit to the various 
points of interest. The Santa Fe is building at this 
place a hotel of one hundred rooms with all modern 
conveniences, which is to be run by the Harveys who 
have made the Harvey eating houses famous in the 
southwest. As the canyon is far enough south to be 
visited during all the months of the year it is destined 
to become a popular resort. The Bright Angel hotel 
takes its name from the beautiful stream which enters 
the canyou from the opposite side of the Colorado. 

How can one describe this awful chasm? More 
than eight miles wide at the top, nearly three hundred 
miles long and almost a mile deep — its immensity, its 
beauty and its grandeur are inexpressible. The ad- 
jectives which one is accustomed to employ at the 
sight of other wonders seem feeble and insufficient. 
There are various points from which different views 
of the canyon can be obtained, the most extensive 
being Grand View, some sixteen miles distant, but the 
views from O'Neill's Point, only a few miles east of 
the Bright Angel hotel, and Rowe's Point, a like dis- 
tance west of the hotel, answer every purpose. From 
the rim of the canyon at any of these points one looks 



WONDERS OF THE WEST 395 

upon a changing scene so modified by sun and cloud 
and shadow that it presents a different picture each 
time it is seen.NjThe canyon is made up of a great 
many smaller canyons and of countless piles and peaks 
and pinnacles of rock. Some of the rocks look like 
frowning forts, some like castles and others like slender 
spires. The different strata of rock from the granite 
at the base, the limestone above it, the red sandstone 
surmounting this, the light sandstone still higher and 
the softer stone at the top — these rent by earthquake, 
raised by volcanic action and worn by erosion, assume 
an infinite number of shapes, of figures and of hues. ^ 

There is an excellent trail leading from the rim of 
the canyon to the muddy waters of the raging Colo- 
rado. During two-thirds of the descent, one is near 
the walls of the canyon and can measure the depth of 
each stratum of rock and note the seams where the 
strata meet. About thirteen hundred feet above the 
river a spring of pure, cold water breaks forth and the 
vegetation about it has given the place the name of the 
Indian gardens. The trail from this point leads over 
a sloping plateau to the edge of the walls of the river 
where a descent of some six hundred feet is made by 
a picturesque route down the precipitous sides of a 
granite cliff. 

There are "sermons in stones" and the stones of 
this canyon preach many impressive ones. They not 
only testify to the omnipotence of the Creator but they 
record the story of a stream which both moulds, and is 
moulded by, its environment. It can not escape from 
the walls of its prison and yet it has made its impress 
upon the granite as, in obedience to the law of gravi- 






396 UNDER OTHER FLAGS 

tation, it has gone dashing and foaming on its path to 
the sea. 

How like a human life ! Man, flung into existence 
without his volition, bearing the race-mark of his 
parents, carrying the impress of their lives to the day 
of his death, hedged about by an environment that 
shapes and moulds him before he is old enough to plan 
or choose, how these constrain and hem him in ! And 
yet, he too, leaves his mark upon all that he touches 
as he travels, in obedience to his sense of duty, the 
path that leads from the cradle to the grave. But here 
the likeness ends. The Colorado, pure and clear in the 
mountains, becomes a dark and muddy flood before it 
reaches the ocean, so contaminated is it by the soil 
through which it passes ; but man, if controlled by a 
noble purpose and inspired by high ideals, may purify, 
rather than be polluted by, his surroundings, and by 
resistance to temptation make the latter end of his life 
more beautiful even than the beginning. 

The river also teaches a sublime lesson of patience. 
It has taken ages for it to do its work and in that 
work every drop of water has played its part. It takes 
time for individuals or groups of individuals to ac- 
complish a great work and because time is required 
those who labor in behalf of their fellows sometimes 
become discouraged. Nature teaches us to labor and 
to wait. Viewed from day to day the progress of the 
race is imperceptible ; viewed from year to year, it can 
scarcely be noted, but viewed by decades or centuries 
the upward trend is apparent, and every good work 
and word and thought contributes toward the final 
result. As nothing is lost in the economy of nature, 



WONDERS OF THE WEST 397 

so nothing is lost in the social and moral world. As 
the stream is composed of an innumerable number of 
rivulets, each making its little offering and each nec- 
essary to make up the whole, so the innumerable num- 
ber of men and women who recognize their duty to 
society and their obligations to their fellows are con- 
tributing according to their strength to the sum total 
of the forces that make for righteousness and progress. 



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